The cost of the new geopolitical game in the Middle East will not be paid only by the actors on the stage - we will all pay it. Every person, in every country. The conflict in Iran, with Israel and the US involved, has already pushed oil from 60 to 108 dollars a barrel. That is not just a number on an exchange - it is the alarm of a global economic storm reaching every kitchen and every fuel tank.

When oil rises, it is not just fuel that gets more expensive. Everything does. From the bread on the table to the clothes on your back. Transport gets pricier, production climbs, and traders pass the bill to the end consumer without thinking twice. The chain is simple - and brutal. The person at a market in Skopje or Belgrade feels the rising price of eggs even if they do not drive a car and have never heard of Hormuz.

This is not just an energy crisis, it is a blow to everyday life. Agriculture depends on fuel, industry on transport, and shops on supply. When the price of oil explodes, the whole system starts to wobble. The bakery pays for electricity, the miller for diesel, the transporter for the road. And in the end, the bill always reaches the ordinary person. A pensioner in Bitola cannot say "no, thanks" to Israel.

More and more people today are asking whether this war in Iran was really inevitable. At a time when diplomatic channels exist, when the economic interdependence between states is greater than ever, there is a bitter feeling that the conflict could have been prevented - or at least delayed. The big powers never explained why the moment for bombs came at precisely the moment when the door for negotiations was still open.

At a moment when diplomatic channels were still open, the new escalation around Iran reopened the question of respect for international rules. According to part of the analysts and the public, the actions of the US and Israel are happening at sensitive moments - precisely while negotiation attempts are under way - which calls into question the sincerity of the diplomatic processes. It is a pattern the Balkans knows well: when the big ones negotiate, the small ones pay. The nineties taught us that. Now a new bill is just being delivered, with different addresses on the envelope.