ISRAEL PERSPECTIVE

Tel Aviv, May 18, 2026. The sequence of the past 48 hours in the Middle East illustrates the persistent volatility of a ceasefire that Tel Aviv observes with sustained attention. Donald Trump announced on Monday, via his Truth Social network, that he had canceled a planned strike against Iran for Tuesday – at the express request of Gulf leaders. The Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and the UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan had, according to Trump, solicited this delay, estimating that a deal remained achievable.

In the same message, the US President posed his conditions in a lapidary manner: 'This deal will include, very importantly, NO NUCLEAR ARMS FOR IRAN!' He also specified that he had ordered Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and General Daniel Caine to be 'ready to launch a major operation against Iran at any moment' if negotiations failed. For Israeli media, this is not an American retreat – it's a calibrated pressure maintained in reserve.

The security backdrop remains tense. In the hours preceding Trump's announcement, Saudi Arabia intercepted three drones 'launched from Iraqi airspace,' according to its Defense Ministry. The Saudi military spokesperson, Brigadier General Turki Al-Maliki, warned that the kingdom 'would take all necessary operational measures to respond to any violation of its sovereignty.' A drone had also targeted a power generator located outside the perimeter of the Barakah nuclear power plant in the Al-Dhafra region of Abu Dhabi. The attack sparked a chain of condemnations from Kuwait, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE.

The Jerusalem Post links these incidents to Iraqi pro-Iranian militias, the Popular Mobilization Forces (Hashd al-Shaabi), already on high alert since information emerged in the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times about Israel using two sites in Iraq as temporary landing strips. These militias had deployed patrols in southern Iraqi desert, near the Saudi border – a strategic position for drone attacks on Gulf countries.

For Tel Aviv, the overall picture is that of an Iran that, even under ceasefire, maintains its regional destabilization capacity through proxies. Trump's nuclear demand, formulated in capital letters in his message, precisely aligns with Israel's unchanging red line since two decades.