We watched the opening of the last World Cup, hosted by Qatar, on tv screens set up outside a pavement cafe in the southern Jordanian port city of Aqaba.

A mostly local Jordanian crowd with a smattering of overseas tourists, both Western and Arab, sat together watching the pomp and ceremony and the opening Qatar vs Ecuador game in good spirits, sipping traditional Jordanian coffees and teas, munching on baklava and dates, quite a few puffing away on nargilla hubble bubbles.

The chaos and uncertainty of the pandemic was starting to lift, there was a sense of hope and new beginnings.

Today, the last day of this year's World Cup, Aqaba was targeted by a volley of Iranian missiles, intercepted by US anti-missile defense systems and Israeli Iron Dome systems across the border in Eilat.

War clouds seem to be gathering again over the region, including the Gulf states and previous World Cup host Qatar, which had thought their vast wealth and playing both sides would grant them immunity from any potential Iran war or regional instability.