UNITED STATES PERSPECTIVE

Washington treats the capture of Beaufort as a fait accompli but focuses mainly on what follows: a call from Trump to Netanyahu, and the armored columns marching on Beirut that turned back. The Los Angeles Times details how Israeli infantry seized the summit "in the dead of night" to gain "eyeball-to-eyeball" against entrenched defenders, then immediately shifted to the next day's phone call — Trump posting on Truth Social "no Troops going to Beirut, and any Troops that are on their way, have already been turned back," and Netanyahu hastening to clarify that he "will continue to operate as planned" in southern Lebanon.

NPR emphasizes the geopolitical arithmetic that has the White House on edge: 800 Lebanese killed in the south since the April 17 ceasefire, over 3,300 dead since March 2, 1.2 million displaced. Tehran has made the Lebanese ceasefire a explicit condition for any nuclear deal with the US. NBC News and ABC note that the Iranian agency Tasnim suspended text exchanges with mediators Monday morning in direct response to Netanyahu's order to strike Dahiyeh. That suspension triggered Trump's call.

US media highlight a contradiction that no White House statement has addressed: Trump says he spoke to Hezbollah "through highly placed Representatives" without naming anyone, and Iranian spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei refuses to confirm for now. Axios reports that it was Nabih Berri, Lebanese Parliament president and Amal movement figure, who served as a relay via his advisor Ali Hamdan. The New York Times reveals that on Friday in the Situation Room, Trump toughened the Iranian draft on enriched uranium — a detail that explains why Tehran is dragging its feet. The American narrative is stark: a president who discovers he has less room to maneuver than he thought.