War-weary Syrians and Lebanese watch from the sidelines as missiles fly in Israel-Iran conflict
DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — In a park overlooking Damascus, 25-year-old Khaldoun Hallak has spent the past few evenings with his friends, drinking yerba mate, snacking on nuts, smoking hookah pipes and watching the sky for missiles streaking overhead.
'We've been through 14 years of war, and this is the first time Syria has nothing to do with it and we're just spectators,' Hallak said.
Since Israel launched a barrage of strikes on Iran last week and Iran retaliated with missile and drone attacks against Israel, neighboring countries have been in the flight path.
Outside the scope
Downed missiles and drones have fallen in Syria, Lebanon and Iraq, damaging houses, causing fires and reportedly killing one woman in Syria. But those countries have so far not been dragged directly into the conflict — which had killed at least 224 people in Iran and 24 in Israel as of Tuesday — and many in their war-weary populations are hoping it stays that way.
In Lebanon, which is still reeling from last year's war between Israel and the Hezbollah militant group, videos making the rounds on social media have shown revelers dancing and drinking on rooftops while projectiles flash across the sky in the background.
Firas Maksad, managing director for the Middle East and North Africa at the Eurasia Group, a New York-based risk consultancy organization, happened to be visiting Lebanon when the conflict broke out and was attending a wedding when a parade of missiles began lighting up the sky as the DJ played ABBA's disco hit 'Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)'. He posted a video of the scene that went viral.
'Certainly most in Lebanon and also Syria are very satisfied to be outside the scope of this,' Maksad said.
No longer in the spotlight, a sense of relief
For some in the region, there is also measure of schadenfreude in watching the two sides exchange blows.
There's a Syrian expression that literally translates as, 'The fang of a dog in the hide of a pig.' It means that two people perceived as despicable are fighting with each other. The phrase has surfaced frequently on social media as Syrians express their feelings about the Israel-Iran conflict.
Watching from a park
Many Syrians resented Iran's heavy-handed intervention in support of former President Bashar Assad during the country's civil war, but are also angered by Israel's incursions and airstrikes in Syria since Assad's fall. The Sunni-majority Syrian population also widely sympathizes with the Palestinians, particularly with civilians killed and displaced by the ongoing war in Gaza.
'May God set the oppressors against each other,' said Ahmad al-Hussein, 18, in Damascus, who was sitting in a park with friends waiting to see missiles pass overhead Monday night. 'I hope it continues. We've been harmed by both of them.'
Hallak echoed the sentiment.
'Every time we see a missile going up, we say, may God pour gasoline on this conflict,' he said. 'If one side is hit, we will be happy, and if the other side is hit, we will also be happy. We will only be upset if there is a reconciliation between them.'
In Lebanon, where last year's Israel-Hezbollah war killed more than 4,000 people, including hundreds of civilians, and left destruction in wide swathes of the country's south and east and in Beirut's southern suburbs, some see retribution in the footage of destroyed buildings in Tel Aviv.
Hezbollah remains largely quiet
A U.S.-brokered ceasefire deal brought an end to the latest Israel-Hezbollah war in November. The Lebanese militant group — which lost much of its senior leadership and arsenal in the conflict — has remained largely quiet since then and has given no indication that it intends to join the fray between Israel and Iran.
Israeli forces have continued to occupy several border points in southern Lebanon and to carry out regular airstrikes on what Israel says are Hezbollah facilities since the ceasefire.
'Of course I am against the Israeli occupation, and Iran is an Islamic country standing up to it,' said Hussein al-Walid, 34, a welder in the southern coastal city of Sidon.
Iran's axis
Despite the dramatic scenes of buildings reduced to rubble in Israel, Tehran and other Iranian cities have taken a worse pounding — and other regional countries, including Lebanon, could still be pulled into the conflict.
Caroline Rose, a director at the Washington-based New Lines Institute think tank said that while it seems 'clear that Iran-backed proxies across the region — particularly Hezbollah—just do not have the capacity' to enter the fray, Israel could decide to expand the scope of its offensive beyond Iran.
One of the goals announced by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was to eliminate Iran's 'axis of terrorism' — the coalition of Tehran-backed armed groups across the region known as the 'Axis of Resistance.'
That goal 'is ambiguous and offers Israel the operational space to expand this war to countries it deems are hosting Iran-backed proxies, no matter how weak they may be,' Rose said.
Al-Walid shrugged off the possibility of a new war in Lebanon.
'The war is already present in Lebanon,' he said. 'Israel isn't abiding by the agreement and is striking every day.'
Sundays
Kevin Rollason's Sunday newsletter honouring and remembering lives well-lived in Manitoba.
Shouts of jubilation
Hassan Shreyf, a 26-year-old student from the city of Baalbek in eastern Lebanon, where Hezbollah has a strong base of support, said that after last year's war in Lebanon and the heavy losses suffered by the militant group, many of its supporters 'were clearly anguished and didn't feel vindicated.'
'So anything, even a window breaking in Tel Aviv, is (now) a victory for them,' he said. Every time Iranian missiles pass overhead, he said, people in the area break out in shouts of jubilation.
At the same time, Chreif said, 'there's always a silent group hugging the wall as we say in Arabic, treading carefully and praying we stay out of it.' ___
Abby Sewell reported from Beirut. Mohammad Zaatari contributed to this report from Sidon, Lebanon.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Toronto Star
24 minutes ago
- Toronto Star
Under attack from Israel, Iran's supreme leader faces a stark choice
CAIRO (AP) — Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who crushed internal threats repeatedly during more than three decades in power, now faces his greatest challenge yet. His archenemy, Israel, has secured free rein over Iran's skies and is decimating the country's military leadership and nuclear program with its punishing air campaign. It is also threatening his life: Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Khamenei 'cannot continue to exist.'
Winnipeg Free Press
44 minutes ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
The success of a key NATO summit is in doubt after Spain rejects a big hike in defense spending
BRUSSELS (AP) — The success of a key NATO summit hung in the balance on Friday, after Spain announced that it cannot raise the billions of dollars needed to meet a new defense investment pledge demanded by U.S. President Donald Trump. Trump and his NATO counterparts are meeting for two days in the Netherlands from next Tuesday. He insists that U.S. allies should commit to spending at least 5% of gross domestic product, but that requires investment at an unprecedented scale. Trump has cast doubt over whether the U.S. would defend allies that spend too little. Setting the spending goal would be a historic decision. It would see all 32 countries invest the same amount in defense for the first time. Only last week, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte expressed confidence that they would endorse it. But in a letter to Rutte on Thursday, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez wrote that 'committing to a 5% target would not only be unreasonable, but also counterproductive.' 'It would move Spain away from optimal spending and it would hinder the (European Union's) ongoing efforts to strengthen its security and defense ecosystem,' Sánchez wrote in the letter, seen by The Associated Press. Spain is not entirely alone Belgium, Canada, France and Italy would also struggle to hike security spending by billions of dollars, but Spain is the only country to officially announce its intentions, making it hard to row back from such a public decision. Beyond his economic challenges, Sánchez has other problems. He relies on small parties to govern, and corruption scandals have ensnared his inner circle and family members. He's under growing pressure to call an early election. In response to the letter, Rutte's office said only that 'discussions among allies on a new defense investment plan are ongoing.' NATO's top civilian official had been due to table a new proposal on Friday to try to break the deadlock. The U.S. and French envoys had also been due to update reporters about the latest developments ahead of the summit but postponed their briefings. Rutte and many European allies are desperate to resolve the problem by Tuesday so that Trump does not derail the summit, as he did during his first term at NATO headquarters in 2018. Budget boosting After Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, NATO allies agreed that 2% of GDP should be the minimum they spend on their military budgets. But NATO's new plans for defending its own territory against outside attack require investment of at least 3%. Spain agreed to those plans in 2023. The 5% goal is made up of two parts. The allies would agree to hike pure defense spending to 3.5% of GDP. A further 1.5% would go to upgrade roads, bridges, ports and airfields so that armies can better deploy, and to prepare societies for future attacks. Mathematically, 3.5 plus 1.5 equals Trump's 5%. But a lot is hiding behind the figures and details of what kinds of things can be included remain cloudy. Countries closest to Russia, Belarus and Ukraine have all agreed to the target, as well as nearby Germany, Norway, Sweden and the Netherlands, which is hosting the June 24-25 summit. The Netherlands estimates that NATO's defense plans would force it to dedicate at least 3.5% to core defense spending. That means finding an additional 16 billion to 19 billion euros ($18 billion to $22 billion). Supplying arms and ammunition to Ukraine, which Spain does, will also be included as core defense spending. NATO estimates that the U.S. spent around 3.2% of GDP on defense last year. Dual use, making warfighting possible The additional 1.5% spending basket is murkier. Rutte and many members argue that infrastructure used to deploy armies to the front must be included, as well as building up defense industries and preparing citizens for possible attacks. 'If a tank is not able to cross a bridge. If our societies are not prepared in case war breaks out for a whole of society approach. If we are not able to really develop the defense industrial base, then the 3.5% is great but you cannot really defend yourselves,' Rutte said this month. Spain wanted climate change spending included, but that proposal was rejected. Cyber-security and counter-hybrid warfare investment should also make the cut. Yet with all the conjecture about what might be included, it's difficult to see how Rutte arrived at this 1.5% figure. The when, the how, and a cunning plan It's not enough to agree to spend more money. Many allies haven't yet hit the 2% target, although most will this year, and they had a decade to get there. So an incentive is required. The date of 2032 has been floated as a deadline. That's far shorter than previous NATO targets, but military planners estimate that Russian forces could be capable of launching an attack on an ally within 5-10 years. The U.S. insists that it cannot be an open-ended pledge, and that a decade is too long. Still, Italy says it wants 10 years to hit the 5% target. Another issue is how fast spending should be ramped up. 'I have a cunning plan for that,' Rutte said. He wants the allies to submit annual plans that lay out how much they intend to increase spending by. The reasons for the spending hike For Europe, Russia's war on Ukraine poses an existential threat. A major rise in sabotage, cyberattacks and GPS jamming incidents is blamed on Moscow. European leaders are girding their citizens for the possibility of more. The United States also insists that China poses a threat. But for European people to back a hike in national defense spending, their governments require acknowledgement that the Kremlin remains NATO's biggest security challenge. The billions required for security will be raised by taxes, going into debt, or shuffling money from other budgets. But it won't be easy for many, as Spain has shown. On top of that, Trump has made things economically tougher by launching a global tariff war — ostensibly for U.S. national security reasons — something America's allies find hard to fathom.
Winnipeg Free Press
an hour ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
AP Decision Notes: What to expect in New York's primaries
WASHINGTON (AP) — Voters across New York state on Tuesday will pick nominees in municipal primaries that include high-profile comeback bids in New York City by a former governor and a former congressman who both left office mired in scandal. At the top of the ballot, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo leads a crowded 11-candidate Democratic primary field for New York City mayor nearly four years after resigning from office following allegations he sexually harassed 11 women. State Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani has also emerged as a major contender for the nomination, winning key endorsements from U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York. Also vying for the nomination are City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams and Comptroller Brad Lander. The winner of the Democratic mayoral primary typically is the heavy favorite for the general election in overwhelmingly Democratic-leaning New York City. This year's party nominee will face incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, who was elected as a Democrat but skipped Tuesday's primary to run as an independent in November. Adams was indicted in a 2024 corruption case that President Donald Trump's Justice Department later dropped. Curtis Sliwa, founder of the anti-crime patrol group the Guardian Angels, will once again be the Republican Party nominee. In the Democratic primary for New York City Council District 2, former U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner is seeking to return to elected office more than a decade after multiple sexting scandals ended his congressional career, doomed his 2013 mayoral bid and resulted in a 21-month federal prison sentence. Weiner faces four other candidates, including state Assemblyman Harvey Epstein. A total of 30 City Council districts will hold contested primaries Tuesday. Also facing a primary is Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who won a criminal conviction against Donald Trump in 2024. He faces a challenge from attorney Patrick Timmins. The New York City contests use a ranked-choice voting system in which voters may rank up to five candidates in order of preference. If no candidate receives a majority of first-choice votes, the lowest vote-getter is dropped, with that candidate's votes reallocated to voters' next-highest choices. Ranked-choice voting is used only to determine winners in contests with more than two candidates in which no one receives a majority. The process is not used in any other jurisdiction in the state. Across the state, voters will decide primaries for local offices, including a competitive contest for Buffalo mayor. In the Democratic primary, acting Mayor Christopher Scanlon seeks a full term after replacing Buffalo's longest-serving mayor, Byron Brown, who resigned in October to head an off-track betting agency. He faces a tough challenge from state Sen. Sean Ryan, who has the endorsement of the county Democratic Party. Also running are City Council member Rasheed Wyatt, former fire Commissioner Garnell Whitfield Jr. and community organizer Anthony Tyson-Thompson. The Associated Press does not make projections and will declare a winner only when it's determined there is no scenario that would allow the trailing candidates to close the gap. If a race has not been called, the AP will continue to cover any newsworthy developments, such as candidate concessions or declarations of victory. In doing so, the AP will make clear that it has not yet declared a winner and explain why. Under New York state election law, an automatic recount is triggered in races with more than 1 million votes if the margin of victory is fewer than 5,000 votes. For smaller races, the automatic recount is triggered if the margin of victory is either 0.5% or less, or up to 20 votes. In a ranked-choice election, if the margin between the final two candidates meets the recount threshold, then all the ballots in the election are recounted round by round. The AP may declare a winner in a race that is eligible for a recount if it can determine the lead is too large for a recount or legal challenge to change the outcome. Here's a look at what to expect Tuesday: Primary day New York will hold municipal primaries across the state on Tuesday. Polls close at 9 p.m. ET. What's on the ballot? The AP will provide vote results and declare winners in primaries for many of the top elected positions in New York City, including mayor, Manhattan district attorney, comptroller, public advocate and borough president of the Bronx, Brooklyn and Manhattan. Also covered are contested New York City Council primaries, mostly Democratic, in 30 districts and the Democratic primary for Buffalo mayor. Who gets to vote? New York has a closed primary system. Registered party members may vote only in their own party's primary. How are ranked-choice voting results reported? In New York City, initial vote results released on primary night will include preliminary tallies only of first-choice votes. These results are not final or official. As these results are reported, the AP will call winners in races in which it's clear a candidate will receive more than 50% of the vote, either in the initial count or once ranked-choice results are counted. City election officials are expected to release preliminary results a week after the primary. This involves running the ranked-choice voting process on just the ballots that have been tabulated by that time. These results will not be final or official and may continue to change as all remaining ballots are processed and tabulated. This means that it's possible, at least in theory, that the leading candidate when preliminary ranked-choice voting results are released may go on to lose the election once all the ballots have been counted and the final ranked-choice voting results are determined. The AP will call a winner based on ranked-choice voting results if it's clear another candidate cannot catch up when additional votes are counted. What do turnout and advance vote look like? As of Feb. 20, there were 5.1 million registered voters in New York City. Of those, 65% were Democrats and 11% were Republicans. About 1.1 million voters were not registered with any party. Slightly more than 1 million voters cast ballots in the 2021 New York City primaries, about 27% of eligible voters, according to the city's Campaign Finance Board. About 12% of ballots in that primary were cast before election day. How long does vote-counting usually take? In the 2024 presidential election, the AP first reported New York City results at 9:01 p.m. ET, about a minute after polls closed. New York City's election night tabulation ended for the night in Queens at 12:25 a.m. ET with about 90% of total ballots counted across the city. Are we there yet? As of Tuesday, there will be 133 days until the November general election. ___ Follow the AP's coverage of the 2025 election at
