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The fight between two well-armed regional powers has their neighbors worried about the conflict spreading, a concern worsened by the prospect of U.S. involvement.
By Ben Hubbard
Ben Hubbard has lived in and reported on the Middle East for more than 15 years. He reported this article from Istanbul.
June 21, 2025, 5:01 a.m. ET
Across a swath of the Middle East, fighter jets and missiles regularly streak across the sky. The newest war in the region, this time between Israel and Iran, has once again put millions of people in the crossfire of a conflict that they want nothing to do with.
The war has embroiled two well-armed, longtime enemies who are ethnic and political outliers in the region, but whose fight, many of their neighbors worry, could swiftly spill beyond their borders.
“We are constantly afraid, and the psychological toll has been heavy,” said Rawan Muhaidat, 28, a mother of two in the town of Kafr Asad in northern Jordan.
The sight of Iranian missiles overhead, and the booms of air defenses shooting them down before they reach Israel, have terrified her children, who cower between her and her husband as they worry that their home could be struck.
“Every time a rocket passes and explodes, we think, ‘This is the one,’” Ms. Muhaidat said.
Adding to many people’s fears is the possibility that President Trump will grant Israel’s request that the United States intervene by dropping 30,000-pound bombs on an Iranian nuclear enrichment facility buried deep underground.
Such a move, experts say, could push Iran to retaliate against American military bases or allies across the Middle East, or to activate proxy forces, like the Houthis in Yemen, to snarl trade routes or damage oil infrastructure, harming the global economy.
