The Independent reports that Syria’s First Lady faces prosecution and loss of UK citizenship as the Metropolitan Police begins a preliminary investigation into allegations of incitement and encouragement to commit acts of terrorism. The London-based Guernica 37 International Justice Chambers has submitted a filing with the war crimes unit of the Met’s counter-terrorism command, which is now assessing the details of the referral to determine whether there are sufficient grounds to warrant further investigation.

The BBC, Financial Times and the Independent report that Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe appeared in court in Iran yesterday, a week after her ankle tag was removed having served five years in prison. The British-Iranian charity worker was ordered to appear on charges of propaganda against the regime. According to her lawyer, she was accused in Sunday’s hearing of participating in a demonstration outside the Iranian embassy in London 12 years ago and giving an interview to the BBC Persian service. The judge told her to expect a verdict within seven working days.

Reuters reports that Yemen’s Houthi movement has claimed to have fired armed drones at an airport and air base in southern Saudi Arabia, and the Saudi-led coalition fighting the Iran-aligned group said it had intercepted an explosive drone.

In a commentary piece in the Independent, Mohammed Khalid Alyahya argues the removal of the Houthis from the US administrations terrorism list was meant to reduce tensions, but it achieved the opposite result. “At the heart of the Biden administration’s Middle East policy is a fallacy: that the region’s politics should be understood as a contest between Saudi Arabia and Iran, a conflict between two states that is also a sectarian struggle,” Alyahya writes.

The Times’s Richard Spencer writes that after a decade of civil war, Syria’s fate is in the hands of others. Spencer explains how Western governments, including the UK, are being criticised by a growing number of voices in the West and its allies for their continued support of sanctions against the Syrian regime. The foreign minister of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, called last week for the reinstatement of Syria to the Arab League, saying it was time for the country to “return to normal”.

The Guardian also marks 10 years since the uprising in Syria and reports that in the few areas not retaken by Assad’s forces, people gather to reiterate the same demands protesters made a decade ago.

The Telegraph runs an exclusive with Shamima Begum, who declined to be interviewed but agreed to pose for photographs. She is seen in Western clothes at Roj camp in northeast Syria as she seeks break with ISIS past.

In the Israeli news Yediot Ahronot publishes a commentary against the decision to lift restrictions on Israeli economic activity, despite the proven efficacy of the national vaccination campaign. Sever Plocker writes: “The effect of the Purim events must not be measured relative to the infection data on Purim eve but relative to the situation we could have been in now had it not been for those reckless events. Let us make this unequivocally clear: Israel’s citizens paid a high price for the liberty that several groups took for themselves to disobey the health directives. They are the reason that about 2,000 people are still testing positive every day on average and not 900, as projected according to the model of mass vaccination. They are the reason that the percentage of positive tests stands at around three percent and not one percent. They are responsible for hundreds more severely ill people and for a reproduction number that, while it is lower than one, it is double what it should be for a country in which almost all the adult citizens have been vaccinated.”

Kan Radio reports that the next phase in reopening the economy is scheduled for Sunday and will most likely include clubs and bars. Preparations are being made to administer rapid tests at entrances to businesses, reception and cultural halls and sports stadiums. Rapid testing requires government approval and changing the regulations. Coronavirus manager Nachman Ash told Army Radio this morning that the duration of immunity afforded by the vaccines is still unknown, but will “probably be longer than half a year”. The number of people hospitalised in serious condition is 640, of whom 221 are on ventilators. The number of people who have died of the coronavirus now stands at 6,011.

Maariv follows up a report from yesterday afternoon about an order that Prime Minister Netanyahu gave last week to shut Israeli airspace to all flights coming in from Jordan, presumably in retaliation for Jordan’s actions last week that scuttled his scheduled trip to Abu Dhabi. It quotes Defence Minister Benny Gantz at an election rally last night, who said: “Netanyahu is motivated by his political-personal needs and is damaging Israel’s national security. The attempt to bypass the security establishment and the foreign service destabilises the entire proper decision-making system in Israel. All this only shows that Netanyahu has completely lost his judgment and is doing everything to look out for himself instead of for the country.”

Ben Capsit writes in Maariv: “Ultimately, Netanyahu understood on his own that he needed to back down quickly. It took between an hour and a half to two hours from the time the original order was given until it was rescinded. All of the people with whom I spoke who were involved in this drama said they couldn’t believe that it had actually happened. But it did happen. In this case, someone came to their senses a moment before it was too late. Who knows what might happen next time.”

Israel Hayom offers a critical commentary of Avigdor Lieberman following his comments about the ultra-Orthodox and Netanyahu last Friday. It states that the Yisrael Beiteinu leader is “a professional liar” citing how his anti-Arab and anti-Haredim campaign messages differ from his actual policies. “The people who best know this to be true, are the leaders of the Haredi parties. For decades, they worked with Liberman shoulder to shoulder in several governments and in innumerable ways, on national and local levels. They made deals, they stole horses, they moved things. Lieberman met with the most important rabbis as part of his network of connections meant to put his plans into action and felt at home in the Haredi ministers’ offices. Lieberman might be able to deceive the loyal voters who regularly give him seven seats. But he can’t fool Deri, Litzman and Gafni.”

All the Israeli media report that police have begun an investigation into allegations of sexual offenses committed by Yehuda Meshi Zahav and assigned it to Lahav 433. The decision to begin an investigation was made despite the fact that no formal complaints have been lodged with the police since the report in Haaretz came out. Kan Radio reported last night that as far back as 20 years ago the Jerusalem District Police received information about alleged sexual offenses by Meshi Zahav. The police tried to corroborate the information, but to no avail. A few years later, more solid information was obtained about sexual molestation of minors, but the police detectives did not receive cooperation from the victims.

Israel Hayom notes that the Defence Ministry has completed the development of a new guided mortar system, called “Iron Sting”, which uses both GPS and laser technology to help the military target enemies embedded in crowded urban environments. Defence Minister Gantz said the system “changes the battlefield and provides our forces with more accurate and effective means”. Col. Assaf Shatzkin, head of the ground systems department in the ministry’s research division, said the new military system could strike short-range targets within several kilometres with the precision of just a few meters.