The nations are particularly concerned by the increasingly aggressive military stances of both Israel and revolutionary Shiite Iran
3-MIN READ3-MIN ListenReutersPublished: 7:27pm, 7 Aug 2026Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkey signed a joint defence agreement in Mecca on Friday, wedding Sunni Muslim US allies alarmed at a regional conflagration that has rained missile fire onto Gulf oil exporters.
Iran and its allies have been firing on Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states, and blockading their energy shipments, since the US and Israel attacked it on February 28 in a major escalation of years of regional tumult.
The agreement is intended to strengthen collective deterrence against any act of aggression and stipulates that an armed attack against any of the three would be regarded as an attack on all, they said in a joint statement.
While the statement did not give specifics on the commitments or obligations each had accepted under what it called the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement, it said the pact was aimed at strengthening their collective security and promoting peace, security and stability in the region and beyond.
A Turkish official said the agreement was defensive in nature, was not directed against any specific actor, was open to other regional countries, and did not abrogate or replace any existing bilateral or multilateral arrangements.
However, the three nations are particularly concerned by the increasingly aggressive military stances of both Israel and revolutionary Shiite Iran even as their long-time US ally struggles to contain regional upheaval.
