How Malta to Jordan, Usually About 10 Hours, Turned Into Four Days

My wife and I were merely inconvenienced, but our story might give Americans a sense of this war’s impacts on millions of people.

While I am generally an optimistic person, I tried to be realistic in assessing the potential of war breaking out in the region before agreeing to leave my home in Amman, Jordan, to go to the Mediterranean island of Malta for a work-related conference.

I had followed the Iran-U.S. indirect talks in Muscat and Geneva, and it looked then like America’s “no-wars” president would again let diplomacy and negotiations prevail. True, Donald Trump had amassed a huge armada around Iran, but I naïvely believed that in a country with only 25 percent of the population supporting the idea of a war, and many in the ruling party opposing it, war was out of the picture.

So off I went. The conference, about dealing with cooperation in the Middle East and North Africa, or MENA, region, went great. As it was winding down, I kept checking the news, and I learned that the Thursday talks in Geneva had gone well. The fact that another set of talks was scheduled for Monday seemed to make it certain that I would be able to return to Amman before any possible war. Trump’s State of the Union speech did worry me a little, but then I was reassured by the fact that the Omani foreign minister agreed to appear on American television to tell Americans that there was progress in the talks.

We will see what will happen. I do have a feeling of sympathy for the people of Iran, who have been living under this strict religious rule for decades, and I hope that they will be one day free; but I am not sure this is the way. We have an Arab proverb that says my........

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