With tensions from the ongoing war with Iran edging closer to Saudi Arabia, the kingdom has drawn two powerful militaries of the Muslim world to its side. Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan signed a NATO-style mutual-defence pact in Mecca on Friday, according to a CNN analysis. BD Global Times could not independently verify the terms of the pact.
Under the agreement, an attack on any one of the three countries will be treated as an attack on all. This raises the possibility that Turkey and Pakistan could be drawn into a conflict if Saudi Arabia comes under a major attack.
The pact’s main aim is to raise collective deterrence and strengthen the three countries’ defence cooperation. For Saudi Arabia, it builds a strong new defence framework alongside its long-standing reliance on the United States for security. Turkey is NATO’s second-largest military, and Pakistan is the only nuclear-armed country in the Muslim world.
All three countries have said the pact is not an effort to form a military bloc against any specific country or to create religious division, and that other countries may be brought into it in future.
Because Turkey and Pakistan share borders with Iran, both are keen to prevent the war from spreading. Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, is growing increasingly anxious about its security amid fears of an attack by Iran and its allies.
Tehran has expressed displeasure over the pact. Ibrahim Rezaei, a member of the Iranian parliament’s national security and foreign policy committee, said a paper agreement with Turkey and Pakistan would not give Saudi Arabia security, just as long one-sided reliance on the United States had failed to guarantee Saudi security.
According to analysts, the new pact is a clear warning to Iran: a major attack on Saudi Arabia could widen the conflict and draw Turkey and Pakistan into the war.
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