Turkey Affirms Mecca Defense Pact Not Aimed at Iran

Turkish leaders have affirmed that the new trilateral defense pact signed with Saudi Arabia and Pakistan is not aimed at Iran. Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on Saturday that the agreement does not identify Iran or any other country as a common threat.

The joint Mecca defense pact was signed on Friday by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, stipulating that an armed attack on one of the three countries would be considered an attack on all.

“We have not written any common threat into the text,” Fidan told the state-run Anadolu news agency, adding that countries that do not attack the signatories will not be considered targets.

Fidan described the pact as “technically” similar to NATO’s Article 5, under which an attack on one member is considered an attack on all. However, the response would depend on the situation. The attacked country must request assistance and specify the type of support needed, from intelligence and logistics to ammunition or deployment of military units.

The alliance will also establish political and military committees, including foreign ministers, defense ministers, and chiefs of general staff, along with a permanent secretariat in Saudi Arabia. The three countries will cooperate in joint training, intelligence sharing, logistics, threat assessment, and military interoperability.

Defense industrial cooperation is also a notable part, as leaders discussed leveraging each other’s military technologies. Fidan noted that preparations for the agreement had taken nearly two years and eight months, indicating the pact was not drafted merely in response to current tensions with Iran.

Despite assurances from Ankara, some Iranian officials have questioned the agreement and warned Saudi Arabia not to rely on new partners for its security. Mahmoud Nabavian, a hardline member of Iran’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, said Saudi leaders should understand that cooperation with Turkey and Pakistan would not guarantee their security. Another member, Ebrahim Rezaei, dismissed the pact as a “paper agreement.”

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi did not directly address the deal in his Friday message on X, but called on regional countries to rely on themselves and pursue what he described as “true brotherhood,” while emphasizing the strength and readiness of Iran’s armed forces.

Fidan described the agreement as part of a broader effort to give regional countries greater responsibility for their own security. “External hegemonic powers entering the region do not solve problems; they exacerbate them,” he told Anadolu.

He called Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan the “core countries” of the initiative and made clear Ankara wants to expand the deal. “According to our president’s vision, we should not limit ourselves to three countries,” Fidan said. “We should develop it and, if necessary, bring all countries under this umbrella.”

Several countries have expressed interest, according to Fidan, and he expects Egypt, which he described as a “natural partner,” to join once outstanding technical issues are resolved. Many practical details remain to be finalized, including how the three militaries would coordinate during a crisis, but the planned committees, permanent secretariat, and focus on interoperability and defense industrial cooperation suggest the pact is designed to grow beyond a mere joint defense statement.