The uncertainty of President Trump’s Middle East agenda continues to be widely covered. The Independent covers comments made by Israel’s Deputy Foreign Minister, Tzipi Hotovely, on BBC Radio Four’s Today programme yesterday. She said that Israel’s government is “very happy about the new administration,” adding, “I think that all the declarations of the Trump administration were showing a deep friendship to Israel”.

The Financial Times says that Trump’s campaign pledge to relocate the US Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem “has triggered a wave of emotion across the Middle East”. The article suggests that if the move occurs, it will end US participation in the peace process and trigger “sharp diplomatic reactions” in Jordan and Egypt, both of whom have peace agreements with Israel.

The Guardian online says that the initial statements from the White House indicate that moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem “may be slipping down Trump’s agenda”.

The Telegraph online includes a Q&A on Trump’s embassy relocation pledge and suggests the possibility that the embassy could work out of Jerusalem for several days each week without actually moving.

The Independent reports that senior Zionist Union MK Tzipi Livni cancelled a planned trip to Brussels to attend an anti-Semitism conference. She told Israel Radio that she was no longer going for “personal reasons,” but the article suggests that she could have been arrested if she entered Belgium after a suit was filed by a local pro-Palestinian group over Livni’s role as foreign minister during Operation Cast Lead in Gaza from December 2008 to January 2009.

The Telegraph reports that Mordechai Vanunu, a former worker at Israel’s Dimona plant, who revealed secrets about the site in the 1980s, has been found guilty of violating the terms of his release from prison in 2004 by meeting two US citizens in East Jerusalem in 2013 without prior permission. He will be sentenced in March.

The Times says that Hamas’s political leader in Gaza, Ismael Haniyeh, has visited Egypt to meet officials for the first time since 2013. The article suggests the visit is a sign that Hamas’s relationship with Egypt’s government “is beginning to thaw,” with President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s regime having consistently accused Hamas of colluding with ISIS-affiliated Islamist terror groups in Sinai.

The Times online reports that peace talks in Kazakhstan between Syria’s government and rebel groups got off to an “acrimonious start” yesterday. The Metro similarly refers to a “shaky start” to talks. The Times online says that rebel leaders “demanded that Iran withdraw from Syria the many Shia militias” that support Bashar al-Assad. More specifically, the Guardian says that rebel leaders objected to Iran helping monitor a ceasefire on the basis that Hezbollah, which it backs, has systematically breached the existing truce.

In the Israeli media, the top story in Yediot Ahronot and Maariv, also reported prominently in Israel Hayom, is the much anticipated state comptroller’s report on Operation Protective Edge. A subcommittee of the State Audit Committee is expected today to declassify one chapter of the report, dealing with the security cabinet’s performance during the operation, particularly regarding the Hamas tunnel threat. Yediot Ahronot publishes leaked sections of the security cabinet transcripts and Maariv speculates that the report will be particularly critical of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Moshe Ya’alon.

Maariv reports on verbal attacks traded yesterday between Netanyahu and Jewish Home leader Naftali Bennett, who accused Netanyahu of inaction for failing to approve a bill to annex Ma’aleh Adumim in the West Bank. Netanyahu countered by saying that now is not the time for “shooting from the hip”.

Israel Radio news reports that police are conducting two further probes against Netanyahu, in addition to the current criminal investigations into his dealings with prominent businessmen. Apparently, one of the new cases focuses on a submarine deal with Germany, which was allegedly influenced by the business interests of Netanyahu’s lawyer.