IT seems Donald Trump’s depredations in the Middle East since 2025 with war criminal Netanyahu have realigned politics and diplomacy there, but not in the way he intended.

A week ago, on August 7, Turkey, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia signed the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement.

The one item in their agreement which made the news was the clause copying the NATO Clause 5 that an attack on one is an attack on all three.

However, the three signatories emphasised that their pact is purely defensive, not directed at any country, and that any military reference in the agreement is vague.

David Adams: People ask me what a ‘New Ireland’ looks like. I saw it at the Fleadh last week

Stephanie Chase: The Belfast I’ve come back to is not the one I left behind

In fact their agreement is a lot more important and far-reaching than the publicity about their version of the NATO clause.

For the period from the end of World War II until the disastrous arrival on the scene of Trump and his sycophants, the US has been the arbiter of diplomatic and military relations in the Middle East.

Their aim has been to control the price of oil and its supply, acting as guarantor of free passage, deposing rulers, appointing puppets, blocking democracy and using their proxy, a heavily-armed Israel, as a counterweight against Arab states like Syria, Egypt and Iran.

All that is over now. Trump has shown all the client states in the region who depended on US support and allowed American........

© The Irish News