Reuters is reporting that Israel does not anticipate a renewal of Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers before the U.S. mid-term elections in November, an Israeli official said on Sunday, after European parties to the negotiations voiced frustration with Tehran.

Reuters is also reporting Iran has developed an advanced long-range suicide drone “designed to hit Israel’s Tel Aviv, Haifa”, the semi-official Mehr News on Monday quoted Iran’s ground forces chief as saying.

Reuters has also said that France, Britain, and Germany on Saturday said they had “serious doubts” about Iran’s intentions to revive a nuclear deal, comments that were rejected by Tehran and called “very untimely” by Moscow.

The Guardian is reporting that three Americans who were jailed by Iran for more than a year and accused of being spies while hiking along the border with Iraq are suing their former captors, hoping to persuade a judge to award them damages for the torture they say they endured.

Kan Radio reports on Prime Minister Lapid’s visit to Germany where he will meet with President Steinmeier, Chancellor Scholz, Foreign Minister Baerbock and other senior officials. Among other things, they will discuss the issue of the Iranian nuclear program. Lapid’s visit, which was joined by a delegation of Holocaust survivors, will be concluded at the villa at Wannsee, where in 1942 top Nazi officials decided on what came to be known as the “final solution.” Lapid and the chancellor will meet with the survivors there.

Maariv and Haaretz report that Israeli officials do not believe a nuclear deal with Iran will be signed before the American midterms in November. They quote an Israeli official who says that “We are currently in another round [of talks], in which we have successfully persuaded the Americans to refrain from making further concessions to Iran, and that is a very important thing. Our dialogue with the Americans is complex. It is a deep and intimate dialogue, but that isn’t to say that we agree on everything. We definitely think that their [decision] to stick to a return to the previous nuclear agreement is a mistake, and that they can achieve more if they put [focus] their policies in the right places.” The official also commented on the Western European countries’ involvement in the talks with Iran, including Germany. “We have been engaged in very meaningful dialogue with them, and the statements that they issued on Saturday (an E3 statement highly critical of Iran’s behavior) were astute and very important. That issue will be raised in the course of Lapid’s visit to Germany.”

Haaretz adds that while intelligence reports indicate that Iran’s uranium enrichment efforts could allow it to reach a sufficient quantity to manufacture one nuclear bomb within a few weeks, Israel believes that Iran does not want to move ahead to this stage and that it doesn’t have the means to manufacture and use a nuclear bomb. “In the end”, an Israeli official is quoted as saying, “Iran wants economic relief,” to lift sanctions and close the open investigations against it. “There must be a credible threat against Iran that would prevent them from a nuclear breakthrough and would spur it to negotiate on a better agreement.”

Kan Radio and Yediot Ahronot report on comments by the head of the Shin Bet Security Service, Director Ronen Bar, who warned that the political instability, the mounting internal divisions and the extremist rhetoric in Israel have given a boost of encouragement to the countries in the axis of evil, to terror organisations and to lone-wolf terrorists. Speaking at a conference at Reichman University’s International Institute for Counter-Terrorism, Bar presented the main threats that Israel faces, and said that Israel’s social divisions were the most complex problem of all. Bar also commented on Israel’s policies regarding Hamas and the Palestinian Authority and said that Abu Mazen’s declining status on the Palestinian street would force him to strengthen the [Palestinian] security forces and to enact civilian reforms, alongside reuniting Fatah. Commenting on Hamas’s regime in Gaza, Bar said that Yahya Sinwar would have to choose between developing the Gaza Strip or resistance to Israel. “Over time it is going to be impossible to govern the population with one hand and to want to improve its lot, and to incite with the other. Sinwar is going to have to understand that that division doesn’t work anymore.”

Israel Hayom focuses on maritime talks between Israel and Lebanon and threats from Hezbollah against the Karish drilling platform in Israeli waters. An Israeli official said that the negotiations with Lebanon were “making progress but we still have a lot of work to do. The Lebanese government needs to make a decision.” The prevailing assessment in Israel is that Lebanon wants to reach an agreement on the issue, and that it is Hezbollah that is currently preventing the negotiations’ successful conclusion. Apparently, Nasrallah wants to have Lebanon’s achievements in the negotiations attributed to him, and he may be looking for an excuse to create military fiction, be that either for his own reasons or due to instructions he has received from Iran. Last Thursday US Special Envoy and Coordinator for International Energy Affairs Amos Hochstein visited Israel, after which he left for Beirut. Hochstein spoke optimistically about the Israeli-Lebanese negotiations and said that very good progress had been made. Senior Lebanese officials also said that most of the issues have been resolved, but several remain yet to be concluded.