In the UK media on Saturday, the Evening Standard reports that Bedouin leaders in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula are set to help restore security to the lawless border area with the Gaza Strip and Israel, and have promised to support attempts to close down tunnels that are used to smuggle items into Gaza. The Independent discusses the role of President Mohammed Mursi in his government’s response to an attack by militant Islamists in the Sinai Peninsula. It claims that Egypt and Israel have a common cause on this issue and that Mursi alone has the power to make the situation beneficial for all concerned. The Independent, the Times and the Financial Times report that Foreign Secretary William Hague has announced that Britain will boost aid for Syrian rebels with £5m worth of body armour, antibiotics and mobile phones to help to tip the balance of opposition against the Assad regime. Syrian opposition figures are said to be welcoming to the idea that Lakhdar Brahimi, a former Algerian foreign minister, could be appointed as the new UN envoy to the country. Robert Fisk in the Independent analyses the problems that Palestinians in Syria have had living there since the civil war broke out. His piece contains numerous interviews with Palestinians who have been forced to leave a country that was once their safe haven.

The Sunday Times noted that Syrian opposition officials say the CIA has been quietly working along its northern border with Turkey to limit the supplies of weapons and ammunition reaching rebel forces. Meanwhile, Republicans and Democrats who fear US inaction will encourage Al-Qaeda and other extremists to build a powerbase in a post-Assad Syria. In its News Review, the paper reported that twenty terrorists died in airstrikes in Sinai days after Islamist militants killed 16 Egyptian border guards in an attempted attack on Israel. The Sun reported that the world’s most wanted Nazi, Laszlo Csatary – who sent 15,700 Jews to their deaths in Auschwitz – is set to spend the rest of his life in jail. Slovakia wants 97-year-old Csatary to be hauled back to serve a life sentence for war crimes.

The dismissal of two leading military figures in Egypt by President Mohammed Mursi is widely reported in the UK media today. The move comes a week after militants killed 16 Egyptian soldiers in northern Sinai. The Financial Times and the Daily Telegraph report that, according to a series of leaks and anonymous briefings to the Israeli media over the past days, senior leaders in Jerusalem are reportedly discussing the prospect of a military strike on Iran. The Guardian reports that a former Israeli soldier is to serve 45 days in jail following charges connected with the deaths of a Palestinian mother and daughter who were shot during Operation Cast Lead in Gaza in 2009. The Independent reports that final tests are being made of a public warning system which would send a text message to Israelis in the event of an imminent missile attack by Iran or Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia. The Independent runs a feature about Syria by Robert Fisk who claims that the ultimate aim of Israel and her Western allies is to break Iran – via Syria.

In the Israeli press this morning, all papers continue to report on and analyse the fierce debate on a possible Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities. Maariv reports that the US would provide Israel with an air defence ‘umbrella’ against the anticipated retaliation by Tehran and its proxies — notably Hezbollah — in the event of a strike. According to a senior Iran expert, quoted in the Jerusalem Post, Iran is disturbed by threats emanating from Israel to strike its nuclear sites and takes such threats seriously. Haaretz interviews a senior NATO general who strongly opposes an Israeli strike on Iran. The paper also reports that the IDF is set to reactivate its long-range reconnaissance drones, amid ongoing speculations concerning the possibility of a nearing Israel strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities. A poll conducted by the Dialogue Institute for Israel’s Channel 10 found that 46 per cent of respondents said that Israel should not attack Iran’s nuclear facilities, 32 per cent advocated an Israeli strike, and 22 per cent offered no opinion. Israel’s media also closely follows the latest decision of Egypt’s President, Mohammed Mursi, to dismiss the country’s top two military officers. Ynet reports that the move is unlikely to affect military cooperation between the two countries. Ynet also notes that during a meeting with students, former-Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said, “the current situation does not require Israeli military action – now or in the near future.”