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‘A claim to be tested’: Can Saudi Arabia-Turkey-Pakistan defense pact deter Iran?

The pact commits the three countries to collective defense, bringing together NATO's second-largest army, the Muslim world's only nuclear power and the guardian of Islam's holiest sites.

Amberin Zaman

Aug 7, 2026

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Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan signed a joint defense agreement in Mecca on Friday against the backdrop of the Iran conflict, marking the first time the region’s leading Sunni powers have inked a formal military pact. Under its terms, an attack on any of the three states will be regarded as an attack on them all, the Pakistani Foreign Ministry said in a statement. Saudi Arabia is among the worst-hit Gulf states targeted by Iran and its proxy Shiite militias in Iraq since the start of the war in late February.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif signed the document in Mecca. 

Turkey, a NATO member, has the alliance’s second-largest standing army, Pakistan is the Muslim world’s sole nuclear power, and Saudi Arabia is the custodian of Mecca and Medina, where the Prophet Mohammad is buried. 

The timing and venue of the signing — on a Friday, the Muslim holy day of prayer, in Mecca — underscore the symbolism of an agreement among three of the Muslim world's leading Sunni states. Diplomats in the region briefing Al-Monitor on background said there is little doubt that the pact is aimed at countering Shiite Iran’s influence.

Rayed Krimly, Saudi deputy minister for public diplomacy, stressed in a post on X that the agreement did not “represent an effort to establish a military axis or a sectarian bloc,” nor did it “constitute a threat to the........

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