The BBC, Guardian and Financial Times focus on nuclear talks in Vienna today. Officials from the US, Iran and the JCPOA signatories will discuss the possible return of the US to the nuclear deal, which limited Iran’s nuclear activities in exchange for the lifting of sanctions. US President Joe Biden is willing to lift US sanction if Iran reverses its breaches of the agreement, but the Iranian government wants the US to make the first move.
 
The Financial Times also publishes an op-ed by Ali Bagheri Kani, Iranian deputy foreign minister and chief nuclear negotiator, who says Iran has two goals in nuclear talks. “The first is to gain a full, guaranteed and verifiable removal of the sanctions that have been imposed on the Iranian people. Without this, the process will continue indefinitely. ‘Negotiations’ without an airtight solution benefit no one. The second is to facilitate the legal rights of the Iranian nation to benefit from peaceful nuclear knowledge, especially the all-important enrichment technology for industrial purposes, according to the terms of the international Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).”
 
Jonathan Marcus writes for the BBC that the competing ambitions of the countries involved in talks in Vienna make success a long shot.
 
The Guardian reports that the UK and Israel will sign a 10-year trade and defence pact in London on Monday, promising cooperation on issues such as cybersecurity and a joint commitment to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.
 
The Telegraph publishes an op-ed by Foreign Secretary Liz Truss and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid. They pair write: “Israel and the United Kingdom are today coming together in London to take a major step forward: transforming our close friendship into an even closer partnership by formally agreeing a new strategic plan for the next decade, spanning cyber, tech, trade and defence.”
 
The Times reports that Jared Kushner, former adviser and son-in-law to Donald Trump, is asking billionaire rulers of the Gulf states to “fund his latest business venture”. Kushner was one of the former president’s most trusted aides, became close to the sheikhs as he tried to forge a Middle East peace accord. Affinity Partners, to be based in Miami close to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago base, hopes to secure several billion dollars in investments but reports suggest that Qatar and the UAE have already turned down offers.
 
The Independent reports that Israel has become the first country to shut borders completely over fears of the new COVID-19 variant.
 
Israel’s central bank is accelerating its study, research and preparation for the possible issuance of a digital shekel aimed at creating a more efficient payments system, Bank of Israel Governor Amir Yaron has said according to Reuters.
 
The Israeli media is dominated by the new COVID-19 variant which reached Israel last week and has forced the government to implement new travel restrictions. Kan Radio reports that a second Israeli citizen has tested positive for the Omicron variant after returning from South Africa. She is fully vaccinated and was listed last night in light condition. Health Ministry officials are trying to locate anyone with whom she was in contact. The Director of Public Health Services in the Health Ministry, Dr Sharon Alroy-Preis, said that “even though Israel is not yet in an emergency situation, we must be vigilant and act quickly. We caught the new variant at an early stage; as of now, there is no community spread”. The new regulations have gone into effect whereby Israelis returning from African countries designated as red must stay in coronavirus hotels until the results are in of the coronavirus tests they were administered upon arrival in Israel. The restrictions on the use of public transport at Ben Gurion Airport also went into effect last night. Arriving passengers will not be allowed to board the train or buses and will only be permitted to leave the airport in private cars or special taxis.
 
Yediot Ahronot reports that the Cabinet voted to approve the use of Shin Bet tracking to locate individuals carrying the Omicron variant. Four ministers — Eli Avidar, Economy Minister Orna Barbivai, Justice Minister Gideon Saar and Education Minister Yifat Shasha-Biton — voted against and two ministers abstained. The decision will be enforced until Thursday and is based on emergency measures. The Knesset will begin to draft legislation to pass the decision, but it is not clear the measure will pass given the opposition of several members of the coalition. After the vote, Bennett’s bureau stressed that use of the Shin Bet trackers would be limited to confirmed cases of the new variant: “We aren’t talking about widespread use of this tool to track all confirmed cases as was done in previous waves. Also, the Shin Bet will not deal with enforcing quarantine regulations.”
 
Maariv publishes two pieces in response to the use of Shin Bet tracking to locate individuals carrying the Omicron variant. Dr Limor Yehuda, lecturer in criminology at Western Galilee College, argues that the use of Shin Bet trackers “certainly does represent a violation of democratic norms. As serious as the pandemic is, it is far more serious that citizens in a democratic country have forgotten that while human rights and implementing them is certainly important, those rights exist only insofar as they do not infringe on the freedom and rights of others”. Attorney Gil Gan-Mor, director of the Social and Economic Rights Unit in the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, argues that the use of Shin Bet trackers “is a terrible, illegal decision that conflicts with the High Court of Justice ruling from last March in our petition to block the use of Shin Bet tracking”.
 
In Israel Hayom, Ariel Kahana describes the current government as hypocrites, quoting Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz, Transportation Minister Merav Michaeli and other ministers who in the past criticised the former government for turning to Shin Bet trackers to locate coronavirus holders. “A few months went by, and not only are you doing everything that he did and you promised not to do, you are doing it more. Netanyahu used the Shin Bet during a global catastrophe when there was no information, no tools and no vaccines, while you, Bennett, Lapid, Horowitz and Michaeli, pounce on every method that you once described as a last resort, and at a time when Israel is not awash with thousands of ill as it was then, but only after a few cases of an unknown variant have been found.”
 
Meanwhile, Yediot Ahronot’s senior commentator Nahum Barnea paints a gloomy picture of the return to nuclear talks in Vienna today, predicting that Iran will become a nuclear threshold state before the end of the current government’s term. He adds that at least for the moment, average Israelis have other things on their minds: “There is no serious official in Israel who believes the Iranian regime intends to launch an atom bomb at the Kirya in Tel Aviv … for the moment, all this appears far off, non-threatening, detached from real life. When Israelis think about Vienna — the spread of the coronavirus there troubles them more than the spread of nuclear weapons. But deep in their hearts, they know that the pandemic is temporary. It will exact a toll in lives, from the economy, in incoming and outgoing tourism, and then will vanish. But the Iranians will remain.”
 
Haaretz reports that the cabinet unanimously approved a motion by Immigration and Absorption Minister Pnina Tamano-Shata to bring people waiting in transit camps in Ethiopia to Israel. Criteria for eligibility stipulate that the new immigrants have a first-degree relative living in Israel. The motion, drafted in collaboration with Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked, says the operation should start “very soon” and will be in line with Health Ministry guidelines. About three weeks ago the ministers agreed to expedite the process of bringing about 5,000 people to Israel because of the uptick in domestic warfare between rebels and the local government.