Saudi Arabia has drawn two of the Muslim world’s most formidable military powers into its defense as the Iran war moves closer to the kingdom.
Pakistan and Turkey signed a NATO-style mutual defense pact with Saudi Arabia in Mecca on Friday, consolidating their longstanding security ties into a collective-defense alliance that stipulates an attack against any of them “shall be regarded as attack on them all.”
That commitment could draw Pakistan and Turkey into a war they have carefully kept at arm’s length.
The official rationale for the agreement is “to strengthen collective deterrence against any act of aggression” and further provide “for the enhancement of all aspects of defence cooperation among the three states,” according to a statement released by all three countries.
More specifically, the pact gives Saudi Arabia a powerful new layer of protection beyond its longstanding security partnership with the United States amid growing regional doubts over whether Washington can still be relied upon to protect its oil-rich Gulf allies.
Turkey has the second-largest military in NATO, behind only the US, while Pakistan is the only nuclear-armed Muslim nation.
Such powerful allies strengthen Saudi deterrence and present a united Sunni-led military front against a mounting Iranian threat, though a Turkish official told CNN the agreement isn’t directed against any specific actor and the Saudi foreign ministry insisted this “does not represent an effort to establish a military axis or a sectarian bloc.”
Other regional countries can also join, the Turkish official added, raising the prospect of the alliance drawing in new members much like NATO.
The statement did not give specifics on the commitments each had accepted, and it is unclear how far the agreement would bind the three countries to any particular military action in each other’s defence.
The pact also comes as Israel expands its military reach across the region and Riyadh’s relations with the neighboring United Arab Emirates fray.
Pakistan and Turkey each share a border with Iran and both have strong reasons to prevent the conflict from spiraling. Pakistan must manage its sizeable Shiite population and its sensitive relationship with Tehran, while Turkey and Iran share concerns over Kurdish separatism despite competing elsewhere in the region.
Tehran repeatedly struck targets in Saudi Arabia during the war, including civilian infrastructure, energy facilities and US interests. Direct Iranian attacks on Saudi Arabia largely subsided after an April 8 ceasefire took hold, but Iran-backed groups in Yemen and Iraq continued targeting the kingdom.
Riyadh has been one of the war’s most vocal opponents and has worked to restrain US President Donald Trump from escalating against the Islamic Republic. Yet the attacks Saudi Arabia continues to face from multiple fronts have left officials increasingly alarmed and frustrated.
A Saudi official told CNN on Thursday that the kingdom was bracing for a major, coordinated assault by Iran-backed militias in Iraq and Yemen, supported by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. CNN has also reported that Tehran warned Gulf nations that renewed US attacks would trigger retaliation against energy or desalination facilities across the region.
The treaty signed in Mecca on Friday therefore serves as a warning to Tehran: another major attack on Saudi Arabia could invoke the pact, draw Pakistan and Turkey into the conflict and dramatically widen the war.
Reaction emerging from Tehran indicated their dissatisfaction toward the agreement, as a senior Iranian official warned that it will not guarantee Saudi Arabia’s security.
“The Saudis should understand that a paper agreement with Turkey and Pakistan will not bring them security, just as decades of one-sided dependence on the Americans failed to do so,” Ebrahim Rezaei, a member of the Iranian parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, said on X.
The agreement solidifies deepening military ties between these nations. Saudi Arabia and Pakistan signed a formal mutual defense pact last September, even before Iran started directly striking Saudi sites.
By CNN
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