President Donald Trump warned Iran on Monday that the “clock is ticking” on Tehran proposing what he called an acceptable nuclear deal that would ensure it never obtains a nuclear weapon.
The warning came as the Israeli military said it killed a senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad commander in Lebanon, and as the administration prepared for a Situation Room meeting on whether to revive military action against Iran.
The Israeli Defense Forces said an airstrike in Lebanon killed Wael Mahmoud Abd al-Halim, whom it identified as Islamic Jihad’s commander for the Beqaa region.
The strike was part of a broader wave of Israeli activity. The IDF said it carried out 30 strikes in Lebanon over the past 24 hours targeting what it described as militant infrastructure, including “a weapon storage facility, observation posts, and structures from which the Hezbollah terrorist organization operated in order to advance terror attacks against IDF soldiers and the State of Israel.”
🔴ELIMINATED: Wael Mahmoud Abd al-Halim, the Commander of the Islamic Jihad’s Beqaa region in Lebanon, in a strike in the area of Baalbek.
Al-Halim led the integration of Islamic Jihad terrorists into combat operations alongside Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon and operated to… pic.twitter.com/4E4lBerxDd
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) May 18, 2026
Donald Trump is expected to hold a Situation Room meeting Tuesday focused on the possibility of renewed military action against Iran, according to the report. The White House has been pressing Tehran for a deal and has framed the talks as time-sensitive.
The U.S.-brokered Abraham Accords, which the administration has highlighted as a regional counterweight to Iran, are also showing signs of strain amid tensions this week between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, the report said.
In the Gulf, the UAE condemned a weekend drone attack on one of its nuclear power plants.
“The targeting of Barakah is a terrorist attack on a peaceful project, built to the highest safety standards, that powers homes, hospitals, and industries across the UAE, and on the right of every nation to build, to progress, and to deliver clean energy to its people. Barakah will keep running,” Dr. Sultan Al Jaber, the UAE’s Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology, said in a statement.
“The UAE will keep building. Our resolve only grows stronger,” he added.
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