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Mecca pact signed
Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Turkey signed the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement on Friday, with the pact stipulating that an armed attack against any of the three would be regarded as an attack on all.
““doesn’t shut the door completely on normalization” between Riyadh and Jerusalem”
Dr. Yoel Guzansky, head of the Gulf Research Field at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), told The Jerusalem Post that the defense pact “doesn’t shut the door completely on normalization” between Riyadh and Jerusalem.
Guzansky said Saudi Arabia likely joined the pact as “trust in Washington is waning in the region,” explaining that “Countries need stability. Saudis need stability.”
The agreement was signed in Makkah at the al-Safa palace, where Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif stood side by side, according to Ynetnews.
Khawaja Asif, Pakistan’s Defense Minister, told Pakistan media that there should be “a united military front” against Israel, which he described as a “threat to the entire Muslim world.”
Threats and denials
Turkiye’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan insisted the trilateral pact is not directed at Iran, telling Turkey’s state-run Anadolu agency that “There is no common threat that we have put in writing.”
Fidan also described the commitment as “technically” similar to NATO’s Article 5, while saying the response would depend on circumstances and that a country under attack would have to request assistance and specify what kind of support it needed.
In Israel’s framing of the pact, Guzansky said he was “worried because the Turks and Pakistanis have a really anti-Israel stance that might affect Saudi Arabia,” adding, “I’m hoping that Saudi Arabia will affect them, but it would perhaps be too naive to think so.”
The Jerusalem Post also reported that Guzansky warned the pact “doesn’t look good” for Israel, especially given Doha’s propaganda capabilities with Al Jazeera.
Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said on Sunday that the agreement is “purely defensive” and that other countries could join if they are willing to respect its principles and resolve their differences through peaceful means.
Open-ended consequences
Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said the Mecca Agreement “does not annul or replace any of the existing bilateral or multilateral agreements between these countries,” while also stating it remains open to other regional nations.
““does not annul or replace any of the existing bilateral or multilateral agreements”
The Jerusalem Post reported that Guzansky said Saudi Arabia joined the pact to gain leverage and options as “trust in Washington is waning in the region,” framing the move as “This is hedging.”
Ynetnews argued that the pact is “not an aggressive super-axis poised for conquest,” and said the Mecca pact lacks “a joint command structure, an integrated air defense network, standard operational protocols, or shared logistics bases.”
Al Jazeera reported that Fidan said the alliance will establish political and military committees, bringing together foreign and defence ministers and military chiefs, as well as a secretariat in Saudi Arabia.
La Razón added that Abdullah Khan, a defense analyst based in Islamabad, warned against treating the agreement as an equivalent of NATO despite its collective defense clause, saying it “should not be interpreted as a pact aimed at Iran or at any other country.”
