The Guardian, Telegraph, Independent, Financial Times and Reuters report that representatives of Iran, the UK, France, Germany, Russia, China, and the EU, the remaining signatories of the JCPOA, are expected to discuss a possible Iranian violation of the agreement in Vienna. Tehran has temporarily held back on its threat to breach the JCPOA, having threatened to go over the 300kg limit for low-enriched uranium stockpiles on Thursday. The International Atomic Energy Agency said progress in increasing the stockpiles had been slower than expected and that the limit may not be reached until the weekend. The UK, France and Germany are expected to use the meeting to announce a new credit instrument, known as Instex, designed to facilitate trade with Iran. Reuters reports that a senior Iranian official has stated that Iran’s main demand in talks aimed at saving the JCPOA is to be able to sell its oil at the same levels that it did before Washington withdrew from the agreement.

The Times and Reuters report that the US has attempted to persuade its allies to join its global anti-Iranian coalition. Acting US Defence Secretary Mark Esper urged European powers not to give in to “nuclear blackmail” by Tehran during his first Nato meeting. Esper had hoped to persuade America’s allies that the confrontation with Iran was a global challenge requiring an international response. However, European diplomats said there was a reluctance to allow Nato to be drawn into a stand-off between the US and Iran. Reuters reports that US Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook has stated that the US maximum pressure campaign on Iran is working. Hook was speaking in an interview before a meeting with senior French, British and German diplomats in Paris. “We are dedicated to this policy of maximum economic pressure because it is working, it is denying the regime historic levels of revenue”. The Guardian reports that Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison says that Australia would consider a request from the Trump administration regarding military intervention with Iran. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has asked Australia to toughen its stance on Tehran and play a key role in a new “global coalition” against the regime. Before the G20 summit in Osaka, Pompeo called on Australia to join what he described as a “global coalition” against Iran.

BBC News reports that Russia has denied accusations that it is behind disruption of GPS signals at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport. Since early June, GPS signals at the airport have been unreliable for pilots and planes using the location. The missing navigational data has had a “significant impact” on airport operations, said Israel’s Airports Authority. Russia’s ambassador to Israel said the accusation was “fake news” and could not be “taken seriously”.

BBC News, the Guardian and Reuters report that Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi is in hospital after suffering a “severe health crisis”. Essebsi was also treated in hospital last week. Prime Minister Youssef Chahed said Essebsi was receiving all the attention he needed and people should stop spreading “fake news” about his condition. There had been reports that the president had died.

Reuters reports that Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said that he felt the Trump administration’s Israeli-Palestinian peace plan “will not really materialise and it’s not going to go anywhere”. “Bahrain was just simply a terrible exercise. I think it’s an economic workshop that has been fully and totally divorced from reality,” he said. Reuters reports that Egypt is unlikely to accept the US-proposed $9bn aid package as part of the plan, with analysts saying that the political risks outweigh any financial benefit. Nathan Brown, a political science professor at George Washington University, said Egypt was unlikely to agree to a proposal that could link it more closely to Gaza’s fate. “While economic development funds for Sinai are attractive, the purpose of the plan seems to be to tie Gaza and Sinai closer together in a way that Egypt has resisted for political and security reasons,” he said.

Reuters reports that UN Syria envoy Geir Pedersen has stated that “a deeper understanding” between Russia and the US is needed to move the Syrian peace process forward. Pedersen is attempting to arrange a committee to oversee the reform of Syria’s constitution – a modest effort, compared with former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s attempt to reach a peace agreement at an international conference in 2012.

Reuters reports that Turkey’s government is reviving plans to transfer the central bank’s 46 billion lira (6 billion pounds) in legal reserves to its deteriorating budget to shore it up and is also considering adjusting some tax measures. A Treasury official and three other sources familiar with the plans confirmed that the funds – which are separate from the central bank’s foreign exchange reserves – were being eyed to help narrow a budget deficit that has widened by 225% in the first five months of the year

In the Financial Times, Mehul Srivastava examines the attempt by Israel’s ultra-orthodox Jews to retain their exemption from military service and its relation to contemporary debates about integration.

In BBC News, Barbara Plett Usher examines the aims and efficiency of the Trump administration’s maximum pressure campaign on Iran.

In the Guardian, Simon Tisdall argues that the drift toward military intervention with Iran shames the UK. He writes: ‘If Trump’s hawks get their war, Britain risks being sucked in on the side of an aggressive superpower whose words and deeds are increasingly inimical to this country’s interests and values’.

In the Israeli media Yediot Ahronot and Maariv report on the situation in Gaza and southern Israel. Eshkol Regional Council Chairman Gadi Yarkoni said: “As far as the State of Israel is concerned, the balloon terrorism is not a strategic threat and the policy is therefore one of containment. This containment has brought the balloon terrorism to the threshold of our homes and this ongoing abandonment erodes the residents’ resilience. This has become a strategic threat to the State of Israel.” 20 fires were reported yesterday in various sites in the Gaza perimeter, bringing the total number of fires that broke out in the area this week to more than 100.

Kan Radio reports that Gazan media say a truce has been agreed between Israel and Hamas with Egyptian and UN mediation. Gaza media said that this morning Israel would resume fuel supplies to Gaza, expand the fishing zone to 15 miles and return 60 boats it recently confiscated from Gaza fishermen. The reports also said that Israel had committed not to shoot at the demonstrators on the border fence, including with tear gas.

The Israel Defence Forces Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi gave a speech last night in which he said: “While we are doing everything in our power to avoid harming civilians, the enemy makes every effort to harm civilians. This is the clearest expression of its being a terrorist army—both organised in units with military equipment, and employing terrorism while ignoring international law, morality and values. This is a situation that must not be permitted, neither [by] us or [by] the international community.” Yossi Yehoshua writes in Yediot Ahronot that: “This was the opening shot in Kochavi’s campaign to inculcate the policy that he intends to implement in Israel’s future confrontations: In the face of salvos of rockets and missiles, Israel will not operate in a surgical manner. Not even at the cost of harming innocent people in whose houses the rockets are concealed. It was for good reason that Kochavi repeated the term organised terrorist army. The IDF wants to continue to be humane, but in the end, it too will be hard put to accept the strictest rules of international law when faced with large-scale launches and heavy fire.”

Israel Hayom reports a speech by Nikki Haley last night in Jerusalem in which she said that US President Donald Trump’s peace plan doesn’t compromise Israel’s security. When asked whether Israel should apply sovereignty to the West Bank, Haley said “I think we should see how the peace plan plays out. I think we should give this a chance.”

Haaretz reports that a Palestinian was killed by Israeli police in East Jerusalem. There were clashes last night in Wadi Joz and in Issawiyeh in East Jerusalem between police and Border Police against rioters. At least five rioters in Wadi Joz were arrested. The disturbances began in Issawiyeh after a young Palestinian man sustained critical injuries from shots fired by police after he set off firecrackers very close to them. He died of his injuries at Hadassah Hospital Mt. Scopus.

Yuval Karni in Yediot Ahronot reports that in closed-door meetings, senior figures in the Blue and White party criticised Ehud Barak’s decision to return to politics, arguing that it could help Likud. One senior figure said: “There is 70% opposition to Barak among the public, so why is he getting in the way? So he’ll have a party with six seats. He can’t actually be a candidate for prime minister, which is what he is fantasising. If he doesn’t expand the bloc, then this helps Netanyahu. His whole outlook is fundamentally flawed. Only the leader of the largest party will be given the task of forming the next government from the president.”

Yossi Verter and Amos Harel write in Haaretz about Barak’s return to politics. Verter argues that: “The sluggish, anemic behaviour of Kahol Lavan’s leaders has succeeded in turning a vigorous, sharp-tongued old man who passed retirement age a decade ago into a hot political commodity. Ehud Barak is bringing the additive – some would say the drug – that this miserable election campaign so desperately needs: a combination of energy, aggression and venom” claiming that “There’s a demand for Barak’s aggressive, determined message among people who aren’t finding themselves in Kahol Lavan, even if they don’t particularly like the person delivering it.” He concludes that Barak’s entry: “Will likely impact the entire center-left bloc. Kahol Lavan will be pushed more toward the center-right and try to do what it barely managed to do last time – attract moderate right-wing voters.”

Amos Harel writes that: “Barak’s return (“to save the Zionist enterprise”) has restored a bit of colour to the despairing faces of those who hate our perpetual prime minister. The initial polls confirm their response. And of course, his return is being backed to the hilt by the media, which feel that this time, after all the failed campaigns they have waged against him, they are on the verge of ousting the man they loathed. In the past, they assailed Barak, disdained his arrogance and blamed him for all the ills that beset the left. Now, when it serves their supreme goal – getting rid of Netanyahu – they have become his doormat, and also the doormat of anyone who joins him.”

Channel Thirteen News reports that in closed-door meetings Likud MKs and ministers had expressed their fear about losing power. One senior Likud figure said: “Netanyahu is dragging the party and the entire bloc into serving his personal goals. As long as he put us in power, that was one thing, but now there is a danger that the public will punish us for this zigzagging, and there is a danger that we will lose power.” Netanyahu’s spokesperson responded: “An internal Likud poll found that 98% of Likud voters want only Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to lead the Likud. All the anonymous headlines of the last day represent only a few embittered people, nothing more.”