U.S. President Donald Trump is “seriously considering” launching fresh strikes against Iran if last-minute negotiations do not result in a peace deal, U.S. media outlet Axios reported on Friday (May 22, 2026).

It said that Mr. Trump met with a senior national security team in the morning to discuss the war on Iran even as Pakistan Army Chief Asim Munir visited Tehran and was joined by a delegation from Qatar in a last-minute bid to hammer out a deal.

President Trump convened a meeting with his senior national security team regarding the war with Iran on Friday (May 22, 2026) morning, two U.S. officials told Axios.

Mr. Trump is seriously considering launching new strikes against Iran barring a last-minute breakthrough in negotiations, sources who have spoken directly with the President say.

Mr. Munir is expected to meet on Saturday (May 23, 2026) with Gen. Ahmad Vahidi, the commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and a key player in the Iranian decision-making process.

Axios reported that a U.S. official briefed on the diplomatic efforts described the negotiations as “agonising” with drafts “going back and forth every day” without much progress.

The Friday (May 22, 2026) morning meeting at the White House with Trump was attended by Vice President J D Vance, Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and other officials.

“Iran is dying to make a deal. We’ll see what happens. But we hit them hard, and we had no choice because Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. They cannot have it,” Mr. Trump said at an event at the White House on Friday (May 22, 2026).

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters in Sweden that “slight progress” was made during talks with Iran.

Mr. Rubio, who was in Sweden for the NATO Foreign Ministers meeting, said he did not want to exaggerate the progress in talks, saying there had been “a little bit of movement, and that’s good”.

Mr. Trump visited New York for a political rally ahead of the mid-term elections in November. Earlier, he had planned to spend the weekend at the Bedminster Golf Club in New Jersey, but cancelled it and returned to the White House on Friday evening.

Mr. Trump also wrote on his Truth Social account that he was not going to attend his son Don Jr.’s wedding this weekend due to “circumstances pertaining to government and my love for the United States of America.” “I feel it is important for me to remain in Washington, DC, at the White House during this important period of time,” he wrote.

A source close to Mr. Trump and a second source with knowledge of the situation told Axios that Mr. Trump had grown increasingly frustrated about the negotiations with Iran over the past several days.

On Tuesday (May 19, 2026) he told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he wanted to give diplomacy another chance, but by Thursday night, he was leaning toward ordering a strike, the two sources told Axios.

A source close to Mr. Trump said the president has raised the possibility of a final “decisive” major military operation, after which he could declare victory and end the war.

U.S. President Donald ​Trump launched a new operation on Monday (May 4, 2026) seeking to open the Strait of Hormuz to shipping, prompting Iran to lash out in an effort to keep control of the critical ‌energy shipping route.

A handful of commercial vessels were reported to have been hit and a UAE oil port was ablaze ​after an Iranian strike as Mr. Trump’s attempt to use the U.S. Navy to free up shipping provoked the war’s biggest escalation since ⁠a ceasefire was declared four weeks ago. The U.S. said it destroyed six small Iranian boats.

U.S. President Donald Trump, on Thursday (April 2, 2026), addressed the nation on the Iran-Israel war, the U.S. strikes on Tehran, and the fluctuating global oil prices.

The address included references to Iran’s plans to build a nuclear bomb and came amid a global turmoil in oil prices and supply chains. 

Here are some of the key quotes from Mr. Trump’s speech: 

On military operations against Iran: “We are going to hit them extremely hard over the next two or three weeks. We will bring them back to the Stone Age.”

On increasing oil prices and Strait of Hormuz: “This short-term increase has been entirely the result of the deranged Iranian regime” 

“We are the number one producer of oil and gas on the planet. We produce more than Saudi Arabia and Russia combined.”

“U.S. imports almost no oil through the Hormuz Strait. We haven’t needed it, and we don’t need it.” 

“Buy oil from the United States of America. We have so much.” 

“The countries of the world that do receive oil through the pass, they must protect the strait.”

“Build up some delayed courage. Go to the Strait and just take it. Use it for yourself.” 

On the US economy: “We built the strongest economy in history. In one year, we have taken a dead and crippled country and made it the hottest country in the world.”

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On regime change in Iran: “Regime change has occurred because of all of their leaders’ death. Yet if there is no deal, we are going to hit each of their electric generating plants. We are unstoppable as a military force.” 

“We have all the cards, they have none.” 

Iran-Israel and U.S. conflict: Context

President Trump had said on March 31, 2026, that the U.S. forces would end operations in Iran “very soon,” evoking a timeline of two or three weeks as his administration pursues talks with Iranian authorities while continuing its aerial campaign. 

Asked during a White House event about the impact of high fuel prices since the start of the war on February 28, Mr. Trump said that “All I have to do is leave Iran, and we’ll be doing that very soon, and they’ll tumble down.”

On February 28, 2026, in a joint operation, Israel and the U.S. attacked Iran’s Tehran, calling it a ‘pre-emptive action’. Code-named Operation Roaring Lion or Operation Epic Fury, several key Iranian cities, including Tehran, Qom, and Isfahan, were attacked.

The strikes killed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as well as over 200 civilians.

Iran has practically closed the Strait of Hormuz in response, leading to soaring oil prices that affect global supply chains. 

The Pentagon is preparing plans for weeks of ground operations in Iran — potentially including raids on Kharg Island and coastal sites near the Strait of Hormuz — though President Donald Trump has not yet approved any deployment, the Washington Post reported on Saturday (March 28, 2026).

Any ground operation would stop short of a full-scale invasion, instead involving raids by special operations forces and conventional infantry troops, the Post said, citing unnamed officials.

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U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio insisted on Friday the United States “can achieve all of our objectives without ground troops,” but the Post said planning is advanced, with one official saying: “This is not last-minute planning.”

The United States is weighing sending up to 10,000 extra troops to West Asia, U.S. media reported on Friday (March 27, 2026), as speculation grows that Washington may be preparing a ground operation in Iran.

The deployment would mark a significant boost to Washington’s military presence in the region, despite U.S. President Donald Trump insisting that Tehran was taking part in peace talks with Washington to end the war.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the move would aim to provide Mr. Trump with “more military options” in West Asia, engulfed by war since U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28.

The troops would join thousands of paratroopers and Marines who have already been ordered to the region.

An Iranian official said on Wednesday (March 26, 2026) that Tehran would retaliate to a ground invasion of its territory by Washington by activating its Houthi rebels in Yemen to attack shipping in the Red Sea.

That would open up a new front in a war of spiralling economic, political and military repercussions.

Mr. Trump has repeatedly said he does not plan to send ground troops into combat with Iran.

“It is unclear where precisely forces will go in the Middle East, but they will likely be within striking distance of Iran and Kharg Island, a crucial oil export hub off Iran’s coast,” the Journal said.

The Pentagon did not immediately respond to AFP‘s request for comment.

Mr. Trump has pushed back his deadline for strikes on Iran’s energy assets, assuring that talks on ending the war were “going very well.”

Israel’s military, meanwhile, said early Friday (March 27, 2026) that it carried out “a wide-scale wave of strikes targeting infrastructure of the Iranian terror regime in the heart of Tehran”.

Iraq’s Interior Ministry said on Monday (March 16, 2026) ‌that a drone ​hit a ⁠hotel in Baghdad without causing casualties or ‌material damages.

Security sources earlier ‌said a ‌drone ⁠hit Al-Rasheed ⁠hotel in the Green Zone, which houses governmental ​buildings and ‌the U.S. Embassy, as fire and smoke were seen ‌rising.

Iran-Israel war updates on March 16, 2026

After examination, ​it was determined a drone ⁠had collided with the hotel’s upper ‌fence, the ministry said, condemning any attempts to target diplomatic envoys in ‌the country.

Security sources also ​earlier said two Katyusha rockets ⁠were fired at the ⁠U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. 

With a focus on U.S. President Donald Trump visiting Beijing next month, China appears to be carefully weighing its response to the Iran crisis, calibrating what would have ordinarily been a strong condemnation of massive military strikes on a close partner.

On Sunday (March 8, 2026), China’s Foreign Minister and Politburo member Wang Yi, in his annual 90-minute remarks with Chinese and foreign journalists along the sidelines of the National People’s Congress (NPC) or legislature, called for an end to “a war that should not have happened” and warned of the return of “the law of the jungle”.

Israel-Iran war LIVE

At the same time, it was made clear that preparations were in full swing to ensure Mr. Trump’s upcoming visit to Beijing would be successful.

Mr. Wang also praised Mr. Trump, saying the Presidents of both countries were “leading by example” and “providing an important strategic safeguard for the China-U.S. relationship to improve and move forward”, ahead of what he described as “a big year” for China-U.S. relations.

Mr. Wang took questions on issues China sees as its diplomatic priorities, including relations with the U.S., Russia, India and Japan – the only countries that received specific mention. He also broadly addressed China’s ties with Europe, Latin America, Africa, ASEAN, and the Global South.

On India, the Chinese Foreign Minister said relations had been given a “fresh start” following the 2024 meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping in Kazan, and their second meeting in Tianjin last year when China hosted the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit. Mr. Xi is expected to visit India this year for the BRICS Summit, and Mr. Modi is likely to head to China when it is its turn to host next year.

Mr. Wang said both sides “must step up to the plate, and support each other’s BRICS presidency over the next two years, so as to make BRICS cooperation more substantive and bring new hope to the Global South.” He said Beijing was “heartened to see reenergised interactions at all levels, a new record in bilateral trade, and closer people-to-people exchanges.”

‘Partners, not rivals’

In addition to cooperating as part of BRICS, he put forward three other measures for relations, including maintaining “the correct strategic perception of each other as partner rather than rival, and opportunity instead of threat”; jointly safeguarding peace and stability in the border areas; and focusing on “development, which is the biggest common denominator of our two countries” to “produce more visible outcomes of practical cooperation.”

On Sunday (March 8, 2026), the ongoing Iran crisis and the China-U.S. relationship received the most attention. “This is a war that should not have happened,” Mr. Wang said, repeating China’s “calls for an immediate stop to military operations”.

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Beijing remains especially concerned about the implications to its energy security from continuing instability in West Asia, at a time when it is already dealing with economic headwinds at home. At the opening of the NPC last week, Chinese Premier Li Qiang’s work report announced a lowering of China’s GDP target to “4.5% to 5%”.

Economic concerns also underpin Beijing’s interest in ensuring economic relations with the U.S. remain on an even keel. Without naming the U.S., he said “a certain country is erecting tariff barriers and pushing economic and technological decoupling.”

Mr. Wang downplayed the idea of a China-U.S. “G2”, saying “there are more than 190 countries”, but added that “the relationship between China and the U.S. is one of far-reaching and global implications.” “Sliding into conflict or confrontation,” he said, “could drag the whole world down.”