Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Pakistan Sign Mecca Joint Defense Pact Amid Iran War Spillover

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif signed the 'Mecca Joint Deterrence Agreement' in Mecca, a NATO-style collective-defense pact stating that an armed attack on any of the three states will be treated as an attack on all. The pact comes amid repeated Iran-linked proxy attacks on Saudi territory during the war and pairs Turkey's large conventional military, Saudi Arabia's oil wealth, and Pakistan's nuclear arsenal. No official reaction was issued by Iranian leadership; an Iranian MP dismissed the pact as mere 'paper.'