Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan Sign Defense Pact Amid Iran Conflict

Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan have signed a mutual defense pact, agreeing that an armed attack on any one of the three countries will be treated as an attack on all signatories. The announcement was made at a meeting in Mecca between Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, the BBC reports.

The new agreement, dubbed the Mecca Joint Defense Pact, builds on a bilateral treaty that Saudi Arabia and Pakistan signed last year. According to the official statement, the document is meant to "strengthen collective deterrence against any acts of aggression," though the text itself does not spell out the specific obligations each side must fulfill.

What Each Country Brings to the Alliance

The roles of the alliance's members are fairly clear-cut. Saudi Arabia is one of the region's financial heavyweights and the world's largest arms buyer. Turkey fields NATO's second-largest army after the United States. And Pakistan possesses nuclear weapons.

The Role of the US-Iran War

The expansion of defense cooperation between the three Sunni-majority states is largely a response to the ongoing war between the United States and Iran, which shows no sign of ending. American forces have so far failed to halt Iran's retaliatory strikes against its regional allies.

Saudi Arabia itself has come under fire, having been drawn in recent weeks into a conflict with Iran-backed Yemeni Houthi rebels, who declared a naval blockade against the kingdom. The Houthis have attacked Saudi airports, oil facilities and tankers, prompting Riyadh to respond with strikes of its own and to form a new maritime coalition to protect shipping in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz