Analysis: Someone else’s war, everyone’s crisis

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Writing this from Abu Dhabi, where the sound of intercepted projectiles has become an unwelcome feature of daily life over the past two weeks, it is difficult not to feel the weight of what the region has stumbled into.

The war that was supposed to be somebody else’s fight has arrived at our doorstep and, as often happens, the people paying the highest price are those who never had a say in starting it. This is the point the international response has still not faced squarely enough.

Lebanon is once again suffering the consequences of a conflict shaped far beyond its borders. For decades, Iran has relied on armed non-state proxies, above all Hezbollah, to project influence across the region. That strategy has often served Tehran’s interests.

But the human cost has been borne elsewhere, by ordinary people living in the places where those groups operate. Few countries illustrate this more painfully than Lebanon.

This did not begin yesterday. When Hezbollah began firing rockets into northern Israel following the attacks of Oct. 7, 2023, it pulled Lebanon further into a confrontation that was never truly about Lebanon’s own national interest.

The ceasefire in November 2024 brought only temporary relief. Nothing fundamental changed. Hezbollah remained heavily armed, deeply embedded, and willing to use Lebanese territory in pursuit of a wider regional struggle.

When it fired into Israel again on March 2, 2026, days........

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