The Times reports that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been barred from receiving donations to help pay his mounting legal bills, days before Israel’s Attorney-General is expected to announce preliminary indictments against the Prime Minister. Netanyahu has been ordered to return a $300,000 donation from a relative and told that he must pay out of his own pocket for his defence against any bribery and fraud charges while he remains Prime Minister. Navot Tel-Zur, the lawyer leading Netanyahu’s defence, described the ruling from a committee in the state comptroller’s office as “a scandalous decision that denies the Prime Minister the basic right to legal defence”.

The Guardian reports that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to enter an electoral pact with a party of ultranationalist extremists has drawn rare criticism from an influential pro-Israel group in the US. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), which has generally given unflinching support to the Israeli leader during his 13 years in power, called the Jewish Power party “racist and reprehensible”. AIPAC retweeted a statement by the American Jewish Committee, another major pro-Israel advocacy group. Although not mentioning Netanyahu by name, it warned that Jewish Power might conceivably enter government under the new deal. “The views of Otzma Yehudit are reprehensible,” it said, using the group’s Hebrew name. “They do not reflect the core values that are the very foundation of the State of Israel.” It added that it would be up to Israel’s elections commission to decide if the party could run.

The BBC, Independent, the Times, Guardian and  Financial Times report that that Iran’s Foreign Minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif has said he is stepping down, in a surprise announcement offering his resignation, posted to his Instagram account. The BBC reports that Zarif apologised for “shortcomings” during his time in government. Zarif played a prominent role in negotiating the landmark 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and major international powers. But the future of the deal has been put into doubt after US President Donald Trump ended US involvement. Zarif’s resignation was confirmed by Iran’s state-run news agency, Irna, which cited a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry. He has served as Iran’s ambassador to the UN and became Foreign Minister in 2013 after President Hassan Rouhani was elected promising a more moderate, outward-looking Iran. The Times reports that, in an interview, Zarif warned that political infighting in Iran was a “deadly poison” in formulating foreign policy.

In the Guardian, World Affairs Editor, Julian Borger argues that Zarif’s resignation is blow for the nuclear deal and a win for Iran’s hardliners, adding that the exit of Iran’s Foreign Minister means the loss of a major proponent of US-Iran negotiations.

Reuters reports that White House adviser Jared Kushner is visiting US-allied Gulf Arab states to seek support for a long-awaited peace proposal for the Middle East that he said would require concessions from both Israelis and Palestinians. Kushner, who is US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, is expected to focus on the economic component of the peace plan during the week-long trip, US officials said. Kushner and Trump’s Special Representative for International Negotiations, Jason Greenblatt, held talks in the United Arab Emirates on the first leg of the tour on Monday with Abu Dhabi’s Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, the US Embassy tweeted on Tuesday. It said the meeting, also attended by State Department envoy for Iran, Brian Hook, discussed the Trump administration’s efforts to facilitate Israeli-Palestinian peace and “ways to improve the entire region through economic investment”. The three are due in Bahrain on Tuesday and will make stops in Oman, Qatar and another Arab state. They are not expected to visit Israel.

The BBC reports that a summit opening shortly at the UN in Geneva hopes to raise $4.2bn (£3.2bn) to fund humanitarian operations in Yemen, where a years-long war has left the country on the brink of famine. It is the largest single country appeal ever made by the UN, which plans to help 19 million people. An estimated 240,000 people are facing catastrophic levels of hunger. Meanwhile, the UN’s Yemen envoy, Martin Griffiths, says aid workers could soon access a key granary near the port city of Hudaydah. Griffiths told the UN Security Council that government forces and Houthi rebels could start to withdraw from around the city as part of a deal reached in December which has yet to be implemented.

The Financial Times reports that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad met Iran’s leaders in Tehran on Monday in his first visit to the Islamic republic, its main regional ally, since the brutal civil war broke out in Syria. “Syria managed to resist and stand against a big coalition of US, Europe and their regional allies . . . and came out of this [crisis] victorious,” Ayatollah Khamenei told Assad, according to domestic media. “You [Assad] have become the hero of the Arab world.”

The Guardian reports that Qatar’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani has said that the Middle East’s polarised and repressive politics will lead to even more instability in the region unless countries take steps to reform and calm tensions. He urged international powers including the US to be more inclusive in their approach to the region, saying one-sided initiatives that excluded either the Iranians or Palestinians did not work. “Anyone that looks at the situation right now – the polarisation in the region – is quite certain that things will not remain like this,” Thani said. “You cannot keep people under oppression for a long time, so to prevent this instability from happening, we just want leaders to start reforming. We have to practice preventative diplomacy rather than reactive diplomacy.” He called on Saudi Arabia to cooperate with the inquiry set up by the UN to look into the death of the Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. As well as acting as a mediator with the Taliban, Qatar has, according to Thani, provided more than $1bn in help to alleviate suffering in Gaza and spent $500m to stabilise the Lebanese economy, a country previously seen as domain of the Saudis. More recently, it has been extending its reach into African and Asian markets.

The BBC reports that US President Donald Trump, on Monday evening, announced that an American oil worker who was kidnapped by Houthi rebels in 2017 in Yemen has been released. Danny Burch “has been recovered and reunited” with his family, Trump said on Twitter, thanking the United Arab Emirates for its assistance. Burch works for the Yemeni Safer oil company. He was abducted after taking his children to school. His Yemeni wife said he was seized in the Yemeni capital Sanaa in September 2017 after dropping his children off at an event.

The BBC, Independent and Guardian report that the UK Parliament is set to pass new rules classifying Hezbollah as a terrorist group. The BBC reports that parts of the Lebanese organisation have been proscribed since 2001, with its military wing banned since 2008. UK authorities say they are no longer able to distinguish between the group’s military and political wings. The changes are expected to take force from Friday, after which supporting Hezbollah will be an offence carrying a sentence of up to 10 years in prison. Home Secretary Sajid Javid said he had decided to proscribe the group in its entirety because Hezbollah was “continuing in its attempts to destabilise the fragile situation in the Middle East”.

The Telegraph reports that the Labour Party has refused to rule out opposing Sajid Javid’s move to ban Hezbollah. The ban will be put to a vote Tuesday evening in the Commons, raising the prospect that it could be opposed. A Labour briefing document, drawn up by Diane Abbott’s shadow home affairs team last January, advised MPs not to push for Hezbollah to be banned in Britain because party leaders wanted to “encourage” it “down an effective democratic path.”

The Financial Times reports that according to the Iraqi President on Monday, the country will prosecute 13 French citizens accused of fighting with ISIS in Syria. The country’s decision comes as European countries wrestle with what to do about their nationals who joined the Sunni extremist group in Iraq and Syria — a problem that has gained greater urgency as ISIS’ territorial caliphate has all but been extinguished. Barham Salih, the Iraqi president, said the fighters “will be tried according to Iraqi law”.

The BBC reports that a passenger who took a crew member hostage and threatened to storm the cockpit on a flight from Dhaka in Bangladesh to Dubai, was carrying a toy gun. The 25-year-old man was shot dead by police after an emergency landing. All 148 passengers and crew on board Birman Airlines flight BG147 disembarked safely after the landing, in the city of Chittagong. Officials later said the man was “psychologically imbalanced” and had wanted to talk to the Prime Minister. In an operation that lasted about 10 minutes, Bangladeshi special forces stormed the plane and shot the suspected hijacker, who has been named by local law enforcement as aspiring actor Mohammad Palash Ahmed. It was feared that he was carrying explosives on the Dubai-bound flight, and some passengers said they saw him with a firearm.

Yediot Ahronoth and Maariv both report on their front page that Israeli Director, Guy Nattiv, won the Oscar for Short Film.

Haaretz, Maariv and Yediot Ahronot report the resignation of Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif. Haaretz says that it happened after he clashed with the Revolutionary Guard Corps. Talking on Army Radio, Professor David Menashri said that Zarif’s main achievement was the JCPOA and that once the US left it was clear it would be the end of him.

Yediot Ahronoth and Israel Hayom report on US plan for Israeli-Palestinian talks as well as infighting within the Right-Wing in light of comments by Jared Kushner about details of the plan. New Right leader Naftali Bennett said: “There is a clear and present danger before our very eyes: the establishment of a Palestinian state. The day after the election, the Americans will push for a Netanyahu-Lapid-Gantz government that will facilitate founding a Palestinian state on Route 6 and partitioning Jerusalem, and Netanyahu will be compelled to toe the line.” Likud said: “Prime Minister Netanyahu was making it unambiguously clear that he will form a right-wing government. Prime Minister Netanyahu protected the Land of Israel and the State of Israel from the hostile Obama administration and he will continue to do so with the supportive Trump administration.”

Army Radio spoke to Martin Indyk, President Barack Obama’s envoy to the Middle East, who said he was pessimistic about the chances of success of Trump and Kushner’s plan adding that he did not believe that a right-wing government with Otzma Yehudit would consent to establishing a Palestinian state with its capital in East Jerusalem. Former Palestinian Prisoner Affairs Minister Ashraf al-Ajrami welcomed the American initiative. “If we embark on a real compromise to establish a Palestinian state in the 1967 borders with small portions of land swaps, I think we will have peace.”

In Maariv, Yanir Cozin argues that: “Kushner strongly put the Palestinian issue back into the election campaign” writing that Netanyahu: “Tried hard to play down, and even hide, Trump’s plan in the election campaign… as long it was Bennett who made claims about a peace plan, such words as ‘nonsense’ and ‘pressure’ could be directed at him. But when the boss says the words ‘permanent status arrangement’ and ‘setting borders,’ then this becomes a real problem for Netanyahu, who paints himself as ‘strong right.’”

Commenting in Yediot Ahronoth, Sever Plocker says the plan will never come to fruition: “Remember Trump’s plan to cancel the trade agreements with Canada and the European Union? … Remember the US’s announcement about withdrawing from Syria? … And the wall on the border with Mexico? … A similar fate can be predicted for Trump’s ‘deal of the century.’”

Haaretz quotes senior officials in Gaza and West Bank who warn of a ‘Real chance of escalation in violence’. Senior officials in the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Hamas said a violent escalation was possible if Israel did not ease its increasing pressure on the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The governor of the Nablus district, Akram Rajoub said Israel’s withholding of Palestinian tax funds or any funds that belonged to the PA, alongside aggression by settlers or the army, were only making matters worse.

In election news, Kan Radio reports that the Central Elections Committee is looking into whether Maj. Gen. (res.) Tal Russo, who is second on the Labour Party list, can stand in this election because his three-year cooling off period after leaving the army has allegedly not fully elapsed. Russo was discharged five years ago, but he later resumed reserve duty on career-military conditions and served in a command capacity until May 2017.

Yediot Ahronoth reports that the Blue and White Party is trying to create an opening for a possible coalition with the Haredim, but to that end it must overcome a high hurdle: the Haredim’s enmity toward Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid. After hearing UTJ leaders’ harsh words about Lapid, Gantz sent Michael Biton – number 11 on the list – to meet with students from two Haredi hesder yeshivas in Gan Yavne. “Lapid will not set the tone in regard to the Haredim,” Biton told them. “There will no accusations or attacks on the Haredim, but rather a spirit of partnership.”