The Times and Financial Times report the US domestic reaction to the withdrawal of US forces from Syria. The Times reports that US Defence Secretary James Mattis has resigned. Mattis, who opposed the surprise exit from Syria, told Mr Trump that he would make way for someone who was “better aligned” with the president’s views in a letter that emphasised the need for the US to be “unambiguous” with Russia and China. Mr Mattis was said to have visited the White House in the afternoon in a last attempt to convince the president to retain some of the 2,000 American troops in Syria. He was rebuffed and told Mr Trump that he was quitting, it was claimed. Hours later the Pentagon released Mr Mattis’s resignation letter and Mr Trump confirmed the news on Twitter, saying that a new defence secretary would be appointed by February. The Financial Times reports that US President Donald Trump is facing fierce criticism from Republican lawmakers and military allies after deciding to withdraw troops from Syria, a move that appeared to surprise his closest advisers. Critics have accused Mr Trump of leaving Syria open to a resurgence of Isis, the terrorist group, while emboldening Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad and giving US adversaries Iran and Russia greater influence in the region. A withdrawal also leaves Kurdish military allies of the US vulnerable to attack from Turkey, which considers them terrorists and has recently warned of a military offensive against them in Syria. Bob Corker, the Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said it was “hard to imagine that any president would wake up and make this decision”. Other leading Republicans directly contradicted Mr Trump’s declaration that Isis had been “defeated”. Senator Lindsey Graham said it was “an overstatement and fake news”, adding: “This is a strain on the honour of the United States.”

The Telegraph and Reuters report that the US has reportedly decided to halt its airstrikes against the Islamic State (Isil) in Syria after it withdraws its troops. The Telegraph reports that US officials said Donald Trump’s decision to pull US forces out of Syria would also mean an end to American airstrikes against Isil fighters in the country, according to several US media outlets. The Pentagon did not deny the report and refused to say if US airstrikes would continue after American forces withdraw in March next year. “As long as there are US troops on the ground we will conduct air and artillery strikes in support of our forces. We will not speculate on future operations,” a Pentagon spokeswoman told the newspaper.

The Financial Times, Guardian and the Independent report on the international reaction to President Trump’s announced withdrawal from Syria. The Financial Times, reports that Russian president Vladimir Putin has said the US aim to withdraw its military from Syria is the right decision, but questioned whether it would actually occur. “If this decision has really been made, then it is the right decision,” Mr Putin said at a news conference on Thursday. “The presence of US troops is illegitimate and illegal.” Mr Trump sought to counter criticism that he was abandoning American allies in the region through a precipitous withdrawal, writing on Twitter that it was “time for others to finally fight”. “Does the USA want to be the Policeman of the Middle East, getting NOTHING but spending precious lives and trillions of dollars protecting others who, in almost all cases, do not appreciate what we are doing?” he wrote.  The Guardian reports that the Kurdish force that have led the ground war against Islamic State in Syria have condemned the decision to withdraw US troops and claimed it will spark a revival of the terror group. The Syrian Democratic Forces, a group of Kurdish and Arab units raised by Washington specifically to fight Isis, said the US’s move would have “dangerous implications for international stability”. The SDF and the YPG, a partner Kurdish militia, described the move as a “blatant betrayal”. One Kurdish leader contacted by the Guardian said the fight against Isis in Syria’s far east would be abandoned immediately, and all SDF units on that front would redeploy closer to the Turkish border. The Independent reports that the US withdrawal might provide exactly the anarchic conditions in which Isis has always flourished.

Reuters reports that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on Thursday, said Israel will escalate its fight against Iranian-aligned forces in Syria after the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the country. Several hours after he spoke, Netanyahu’s office said he had spoken with U.S. President Donald Trump about Syria and “discussed ways to continue cooperation between Israel and the United States against the Iranian aggression”.  Some Israeli officials have said Trump’s move, announced on Wednesday, could help Iran by removing a U.S. garrison that stems the movement of Iranian forces and weaponry into Syria from Iraq. “We will continue to act very aggressively against Iran’s efforts to entrench in Syria,” Netanyahu said in televised remarks, referring to an Israeli air campaign in Syria against Iranian deployments and arms transfers to Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas, carried out with Moscow often turning a blind eye. “We do not intend to reduce our efforts. We will intensify them, and I know that we do so with the full support and backing of the United States.”

The Times reports that Turkey is gearing up for a large-scale offensive in Syria after President Trump’s surprise announcement of an immediate US withdrawal from the war-torn country. Hulusi Akar, the defence minister, said Turkey was preparing “intensely” for operations east of the Euphrates river, an area held by the Syrian Defence Forces (SDF), a coalition largely composed of Kurdish fighters. The US helped to create the SDF as its ground force against Isis in 2015 and has supported it with weapons shipments, airstrikes and troops. US officials said that air support would also be withdrawn.

The Guardian presents a long read on how the UAE strategy in Yemen shows how a small and very ambitious nation is projecting its power beyond its borders. The Saudis, says the newspaper, have attracted the bulk of the world’s displeasure for their bloody intervention in Yemen, but the UAE plays a more forceful role on the ground – and its allies in the south, including local militias, Salafi fighters, and south Yemen separatists who want to break away from Hadi’s government, have been known to fight against the Saudis’ own proxies in the country.

The Independent reports that, according to Israeli media, Israel’s state prosecutor is set to recommend that Israel’s PM Benjamin Netanyahu be charged with corruption in at least one of the three cases against him. Israel’s state prosecutor’s office said Wednesday it has completed its work into the corruption cases Mr Netanyahu is currently facing, dubbed cases 4000, 2000 and 1000, and would be forwarding the findings to the country’s attorney-general. Hadashot TV news reported that the state prosecutor had found sufficient evidence to charge the prime minister in case 4000 or “Bezeq”, named after a telecommunication company he supposedly awarded regulatory favours too. The outlet claimed the other two cases were described as “bribery lite”. They include case 1000, in which the premier and his wife allegedly received lavish gifts from Israeli Hollywood entertainment magnate Arnon Milchan and others in exchange for personal favours. Also included is case 2000, in which the premier allegedly struck a deal to get positive coverage in Israel’s second largest newspaper.

The Guardian reports that Saudi Arabian and US resistance has forced the UK to delay plans to table a UN security council resolution on Yemen, raising the prospect that UN-appointed retired Dutch general, Patrick Cammaert will fly to the Red Sea port of Hodeidah without a mandate to enforce a fragile ceasefire and troop withdrawal. The US is demanding that the draft resolution contains reference to Iran’s role in arming the rebel Houthis, a proposal that has led to Russian threats to veto it. Saudi Arabia is meanwhile insisting the draft contains no reference to an independent investigation into breaches of international humanitarian law during the three-year civil war, so protecting its pilots from UN investigations into the deliberate targeting of civilians. Negotiations over the resolution reached an impasse on Wednesday, but the UK is pressing all sides to compromise by focusing the resolution on an endorsement of the ceasefire deal agreed by the Iranian-backed Houthis and the Saudi-backed, UN-recognised government in talks last week in Stockholm.

All Israeli media assess US President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw US troops from Syria and its ramifications for Israel. Israel Hayom reports Prime Minister Netanyahu spoke with President Trump. Netanyahu’s office said that “the two spoke about ways to continue the cooperation between Israel and the US against Iranian aggression.” Meanwhile, heavy criticism was levelled behind closed doors at the Trump decision. A senior minister called the decision “a morally shocking and politically terrible move.” He said that “the move does not serve Israel’s interests, hurts the Kurds, strengthens Erdogan, and gives Iran another way of shipping arms to Syria.” The paper also reports a senior Jordanian officials saying that a joint effort by Jordan, Israel, and Saudi Arabia is taking place behind the scenes to minimise the threat presented by Syria due to the presence of Iran and Hezbollah in the country. The senior Jordanian officials stressed that officials in Washington made it clear to the relevant countries that American intelligence agencies will significantly increase security cooperation with Israel, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia as part of the fight against the Iranian effort to create a “Shiite corridor” from Tehran to Beirut.  Maariv reports that Regional Cooperation Minister Tzahi Hanegbi said: “The exit of the American forces from Syria does not significantly affect Israel. The American ground force in Syria is trivial and it had no connection to the air campaign that Israel conducted against Iranian entrenchment in Syria.” He also added, “There was an American force that was stationed between Iraq and Syria and the fact that it is leaving would ostensibly make it easier for the Iranians to reach Syria, but as we saw, the Iranians have come in from other places.”

Nahum Barnea in Yediot Ahronot writes that Trump is an isolationist and while that enables the Israeli government to do whatever it likes in the occupied territories, it weakens the US standing in the region. In Israel Hayom, Prof. Avraham Ben-Zvi notes that the US withdrawal “is liable to give Iran more manoeuvring ability that threatens and challenges us. The key, therefore, to minimizing the risk, lies with Washington and in Moscow… one possible outcome could in fact be that it will broaden and intensify the cooperation and strategic coordination with Israel in Syrian airspace. This would not be out of support or sensitivity to Israel’s security problems but in order to ensure the regime of checks and balances that serve Russia’s basic goal of preventing Iran from strengthening too much in the Syrian theatre.” Maariv says the “assessment in Israel is that the withdrawal of American troops from Syria will not have a significant effect on the Air Force’s ability to strike in Syria. The Americans did not take part in the campaign that Israel is waging against Iranian entrenchment in Syria and its actions against Hezbollah’s precision-guided missile program. Ironically, the American withdrawal … unshackles Israel from Washington and if the Iranians take action, the IDF might increase its operational activity in response. The assessment in Israel at this stage is that the IDF’s freedom will not be affected and that in some places will even increase. But on another level, the story is entirely different. Russia is basically further establishing what has been clear for a long time: it remains the dominant world power in the region and Israel’s freedom of action in Syrian air space is only up to a point and depends solely on Russia’s interests.”  In Yediot Ahronot, Alex Fishman concludes: “It is clear to the security establishment that upon the American withdrawal, the Russians will feel freer about acting aggressively. This could take the form of their adopting a more aggressive attitude toward Israel and in an attempt to mount obstacles to some IDF activity. It could also take the form of Russian offensive activity against Iranian expansion attempts. In that case, Israel’s strategic position in Syria will become more balanced and even contain an opportunity to increase the cooperation with the Russians so as to weaken the Iranians.”

Maariv reports that, according to military sources, the Palestinian man suspected of carrying out the deadly shooting terror attack on December 13^th at the bus-stop by Givat Assaf is Asem Barghouti, the brother of Salih Barghouti, another suspected terrorist, who was shot dead the day before in a village near Ramallah as he attacked Israeli security forces in an attempt to evade arrest. He was suspected of having carried out a terror attack near the Ofra settlement three days earlier. The paper also reports that there were two shooting incidents yesterday in the Binyamin area. Shots were fired at the hitchhiking stop at the Ofra intersection, apparently from the adjacent village of Ein Yabrud. No one was injured. Less than an hour later, a Palestinian vehicle attempted to breach the checkpoint adjacent to Beit El. The soldiers fired at the vehicle and the driver was killed. Palestinian sources reported that the driver who was killed was a 17-year-old from Silwan in East Jerusalem.

Kan radio reports on the ongoing Operation Northern Shield. They report that the IDF announced that the neutralisation and demolition phase of the four attack tunnels that were discovered on the northern border has begun. IDF Spokesman Brig. Gen. Ronen Manelis said that the neutralisation was being carried out from within Israeli territory and that it was a complex and ongoing process. He warned the inhabitants of Lebanon not to come close to the openings of the tunnels. Explosions could be heard as the activity was being carried out last night and reports in Lebanon said that the IDF had blown up a tunnel in the Zarit area.

Barak Ravid of Channel 10 news reports that more than three months ago, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s national security adviser Nikolai Patrushev gave his Israeli counterpart a document containing an unofficial proposal for a deal between the US and Russia on Syria and Iran, intended to start a wider dialogue between Washington and Moscow to improve relations. The Russian proposal would have tied a US withdrawal from Syria to an Iranian exit from the country, and provided the US and Israel more influence over a future political settlement in Syria. The Russians approached Israel to act as act as a facilitator between the US and Russia and encourage the White House to start a dialogue with the Kremlin on Syria and Iran as an opening for a wider bilateral discussion. However, it also called for a freeze on US sanctions on Iran, something Netanyahu found unacceptable. He quotes an Israeli official saying: “For Netanyahu, stopping the Iranian nuclear program was above everything else, and this is why he refused to show any flexibility on the issue of US sanctions.”