BEIRUT (AP) — Ahed Badawi lived for more than a decade in Bahrain, a small Gulf country that — unlike her native Syria — rarely made headlines.
It provided a refuge for her, her sister and their elderly mother during Syria’s 14 years of civil war.
“Nothing at all ever happened there,” she said. “I mean, the Bahrainis don’t even know what war is.”
But after the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran, sparking a regional war, Bahrain and neighboring Gulf countries found themselves in Iran's crosshairs. So the family fled back to their home in Aleppo, which was once the site of some of the civil war's fiercest battles but now offered a safe haven.
War-battered Syria has stood out as one of the few spots of calm in the region’s latest conflagration. Its leaders have been working to rebuild relations with Arab and Western countries that had shunned Syria under former President Bashar Assad, who was ousted in December 2024 by rebels, who then installed a new government.
Since the outbreak of the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, Damascus has seized on the opportunity to strengthen those relationships by staying neutral.
Syria has “presented itself as the solution to strategic crises in the region,” said Obayda Ghadban, an official with the Syrian Foreign Ministry.
After the U.S.-Israeli attacks, Iran rained missiles not only on Israel but on Gulf countries hosting U.S. bases. In Lebanon, the dormant war between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah reignited. And Iraq — which is home to both Iran-backed militias and U.S. bases — found itself in the crosshairs of both sides.
Despite missiles flying overhead — and occasionally falling on Syrian territory — Syria managed to stay on the sidelines and positioned itself as an alternative transport route for oil exports that could no longer be sent through the strait.
“Syria, which was once an arena for others’ conflicts, has today chosen, through the will of its people and institutions, to be a bridge to security and a fundamental pillar of the solution,” interim Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa said last week at a meeting of European leaders in Cyprus.
He touted his country as “the alternative and secure artery connecting Central Asia and the Gulf to the heart of the European continent.”
Since Iran blocked access to the strait, oil shipments have been trucked from Iraq into Syria and shipped to European markets via Syria’s Baniyas port, bypassing the Hormuz route. A key border crossing between northern Iraq and Syria reopened last month after being closed for more than a decade, with officials touting it as an additional route for energy exports.
The overland route is less efficient and more expensive than shipping exports through the strait, but it provides a workaround as long as Iran maintains its stranglehold on the channel.
Ghadban said his country had no interest in allying with either side in the war.
“The parties participating in it are strategic enemies of Syria, whether we talk about Iran and its affiliates, or if we talk about Israel and its aggressive expansionist policy in Syria,” he said. “Both parties have an interest in weakening Syria.”
Iran was a key ally of Assad and came to his aid during the civil war, as did Hezbollah and allied Iraqi militias. That put them in conflict with the groups that are now ruling in Damascus.
Israel, meanwhile, has been suspicious of and sometimes openly hostile toward Syria's new Islamist-led authorities. After Assad’s fall, the Israeli military seized control of a U.N.-patrolled buffer zone in southern Syria and has been occupying it.
In the early weeks of the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran, some had speculated that Syria might join the fray to settle scores against Hezbollah.
But the Syrian military made no such move, and al-Sharaa and other officials insisted they had no interest in intervening in Lebanon.
Noah Bonsey, senior adviser on Syria with the International Crisis Group, said that while “Damascus was really clear from the beginning that it wanted no part of this war and signaled to everyone accordingly,” its ability to actually stay out of the fray was in part due to fortuitous timing.
Eastern Syria had for years hosted bases housing U.S. troops, but the U.S. had drawn down its presence before the war with Iran started.
After fighting broke out between forces of the central Syrian government and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in northeastern Syria in January, the U.S. military moved thousands of suspected Islamic State militants held in detention centers in Syria to Iraq. The military also scaled down its own presence in Syria, where the main mission was to prevent a resurgence of IS.
“Because the withdrawal had gone so far by the time the war (with Iran) started, there were very few U.S. assets and personnel still in the country” that could have drawn Iranian fire, Bonsey said.
Syria may have gained politically from its neutral positioning in the regional war, but it will still suffer from the conflict economically, Bonsey said.
Damascus had counted on Syria’s postwar reconstruction receiving investment from wealthy Gulf Arab countries once known for their shopping malls and skyscrapers.
But now those countries will have fewer resources and "less bandwidth to spare for lower-priority issues” as they focus on “shoring up their own defense and getting their own economies back up to speed” after the war, Bonsey said.
While Syria could benefit in the long term from infrastructure projects such as proposed rail lines and gas pipelines that would link the Gulf to Turkey and to European markets, those projects will take years, if they happen at all.
In the meantime, Syria’s new government faces increasing discontent from the population over the country’s flagging economy.
But Badawi, for now at least, is happy to be back home, despite the difficulties.
“There’s nothing like being in your own country," she said. "When you’re in your own country, you feel a different kind of security.”
Associated Press journalist Ghaith AlSayed in Damascus, Syria, contributed to this report.
FILE — A man takes a cellphone photo as missiles fired from Iran toward Israel fly over Syrian territory in Damascus, Syria, early Wednesday, June 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed, File)
FILE — Exposing himself to the danger of unexploded ordnance, a boy touches an unexploded Iranian projectile that landed in an open field in the outskirts of Qamishli, eastern Syria, March 4, 2026.(AP Photo/Baderkhan Ahmad, File)
FILE — Members of the Syrian Civil Defense inspect a building after debris from an Iranian missile fell, injuring at least four people, including three children, according to Syria's state news agency SANA, in the town of Ain Terma, near Damascus, Syria, March 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed, File)
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Taylor Frankie Paul, a reality TV star from “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives,” and the father of her 2-year-old son were ordered Thursday to stay 100 feet (30 meters) away from each other for the next three years as a Utah court commissioner continues to assess custody plans for the child.
Paul has been unable to spend unsupervised time with her son since a hearing April 7, when Third District Court Commissioner Russell Minas said Paul had a history of volatile behavior directed at her former partner, Dakota Mortensen, while kids were present.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This story includes discussion of domestic violence. If you or someone you know needs help, please call the national domestic violence hotline: 1-800-799-7233 in the U.S.
Minas on Thursday described the pair's dynamic as “very toxic” before granting Paul and Mortensen's dueling requests for protective orders against each other. He found that “there’s been violence that occurred both ways between these parties” and urged them to figure out how to function as co-parents to their son, Ever.
“I'm hoping that you're not people who just thrive on the drama and the conflict,” Minas said. “You've got to put your child first and shield the child from this conflict.”
Paul, Mortensen and their families were present in court, but no other cast members from the Hulu reality show attended.
Attorneys for Paul and Mortensen offered competing versions of fights between the pair, with each suggesting the other party was the aggressor.
Paul's attorney Eric Swinyard told the court commissioner that Mortensen is much larger and stronger than Paul — and that when she was faced with physical intimidation from Mortensen during an argument, she responded the same way a lot of people would.
“He said, ‘Hit me,’ and she did,” Swinyard said.
One fight between the two came while Paul was dealing with recent miscarriages, and she felt that Mortensen had been blowing her off while their son was sick.
When Paul lost her footing and fell to the ground, Mortensen kicked her several times in the leg, Swinyard alleged. He submitted to the court photos of her bruises.
Mortensen's attorney Brent Salazar-Hall said his client was a victim of abuse from Paul, but that she kept luring him back with text messages inviting him over for intimacy.
During one argument, Paul and Mortensen were in a truck and she tried to interfere with his driving by squeezing his face, Salazar-Hall said. In response, Mortensen shoved her away, he said.
Paul's lawyers said Mortensen slammed her head into the vehicle's dashboard, causing bruises.
Mortensen has Paul’s initials tattooed on the inside of his lip, which Paul’s attorney pointed to as an example of his possessive nature. Mortensen’s lawyer disagreed with that characterization and said many of the men on the TV show got lip tattoos of their partners’ names in a humorous scene that has not yet aired.
“There seems to be a continuing attraction that they have for each other, whether it’s physical, whether it’s the thrill between the two of them of making themselves celebrities,” Minas said.
“The problem is that the two of them can’t be together in the same place at the same time before it starts to turn violent,” he added.
Violations of the protective orders could result in criminal charges.
Eleven fights between the exes were under examination in their protective order requests. A recently leaked video of one fight from 2023 prompted ABC to make the unprecedented move last month of shelving an already-filmed season of “The Bachelorette” starring Paul. Hulu also paused production of “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” and resumed filming last week.
In the video, Paul appeared to punch, kick and throw chairs at Mortensen while her daughter from another relationship watched and cried.
Swinyard alleged that Mortensen leaked that video to the press to ruin Paul’s reality TV career just before her season of “The Bachelorette” was supposed to air.
“Our point with the video is he’s not just trying to come after her for custody. He’s not just trying to seek a protective order. He wants to literally destroy her,” Swinyard said.
Salazar-Hall said Mortensen denies leaking the video.
Just after the fight, Paul was charged with aggravated assault and other offenses, including domestic violence in the presence of a child. The police body camera footage of her arrest was featured in the first season of the Hulu series.
Paul pleaded guilty to an assault charge, which will be reduced from a felony to a misdemeanor if she stays out of legal trouble for a three-year probationary period that ends in August. The other counts were dismissed.
Earlier this month, the Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office declined to file new charges against Paul in recent fights with Mortensen. Any new charges would have violated Paul's probation from the 2023 assault.
Minas said he would make custody recommendations by May 11. Mortensen has custody in the meantime.
Paul had majority custody of their son before the April 7 hearing.
A protective order in Utah can restrict or eliminate a parent’s ability to see their child. When both parents have protective orders against each other, the court relies heavily on the recommendations of an attorney appointed to investigate the child's best interests.
Paul and Mortensen's son had a court-appointed attorney present at Thursday’s hearing to help the commissioner determine the safest arrangement for the boy.
Associated Press writer Rebecca Boone in Boise, Idaho, contributed.
Dakota Mortensen, left, speaks with his attorney Joel Kittrell in Third District Court for a hearing regarding protective orders in Salt Lake City on Thursday, April 30, 2026. (Bethany Baker/The Salt Lake Tribune via AP, Pool)
Taylor Frankie Paul, left, hugs Cheyenne Cranford Mortensen, Dakota Mortensen's mother, after appearing in Third District Court for a hearing regarding protective orders in Salt Lake City on Thursday, April 30, 2026. (Bethany Baker/The Salt Lake Tribune via AP, Pool)
Dakota Mortensen appears in Third District Court for a hearing regarding protective orders in Salt Lake City on Thursday, April 30, 2026. (Bethany Baker/The Salt Lake Tribune via AP, Pool)
Taylor Frankie Paul appears in Third District Court for a hearing regarding protective orders in Salt Lake City on Thursday, April 30, 2026. (Bethany Baker/The Salt Lake Tribune via AP, Pool)
Dakota Mortensen, left, speaks with his attorney Joel Kittrell in Third District Court for a hearing regarding protective orders in Salt Lake City on Thursday, April 30, 2026. (Bethany Baker/The Salt Lake Tribune via AP, Pool)
Taylor Frankie Paul appears in Third District Court for a hearing regarding protective orders in Salt Lake City on Thursday, April 30, 2026. (Bethany Baker/The Salt Lake Tribune via AP, Pool)
Taylor Frankie Paul, center right, appears in Third District Court for a hearing regarding protective orders between her and her former partner Dakota Mortensen in Salt Lake City, Thursday, April 30, 2026. (Bethany Baker/The Salt Lake Tribune via AP, Pool)
Attorney Brent Salazar-Hall, representing Dakota Mortensen, speaks during a hearing regarding protective orders between Taylor Frankie Paul and Mortensen in Third District Court in Salt Lake City, Thursday, April 30, 2026. (Bethany Baker/The Salt Lake Tribune via AP, Pool)
Taylor Frankie Paul, second from left, and Dakota Mortensen, far right, appear in Third District Court for a hearing regarding protective orders in Salt Lake City, Thursday, April 30, 2026. (Bethany Baker/The Salt Lake Tribune via AP, Pool)
Dakota Mortensen appears in Third District Court for a hearing regarding protective orders between him and his former partner Taylor Frankie Paul in Salt Lake City, Thursday, April 30, 2026. (Bethany Baker/The Salt Lake Tribune via AP, Pool)
Taylor Frankie Paul appears in Third District Court for a hearing regarding protective orders between her and her former partner Dakota Mortensen in Salt Lake City, Thursday, April 30, 2026. (Bethany Baker/The Salt Lake Tribune via AP, Pool)
FILE - Taylor Frankie Paul appears at the Oscars in Los Angeles on March 15, 2026. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File)
