From Gwadar on the Arabian Sea to the Golden Horn in Istanbul, a new geopolitical arc is forming as Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey sign the “Mecca Pact.”

Meanwhile, from Mumbai on the Arabian Sea to Piraeus in the Aegean, a parallel arc is stretching, with India, the United Arab Emirates, Israel, Cyprus, and Greece forming a new grouping. This bloc is increasingly connected by trade, energy, defense cooperation, and the promise of the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC).

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Both sit a few thousand miles east of Winston Churchill’s “iron curtain,” which he said in 1946 descended “from Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic.”

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Washington’s instinct may be to gravitate toward the alignment containing Israel. But America does not need to choose between the two Middle Easts. It needs both.

Last month, President Donald Trump endorsed the Mecca Pact, writing on Truth Social that he was “Very happy” to see the three countries coming together to defend themselves in a more meaningful way. He is right to do so.

In terms of grand strategy, Washington must avoid two outcomes. The first is allowing the Israel-Turkey rift, which is at the heart of these groupings, to escalate even further. The second is abandoning the Mecca grouping to China, which would significantly strengthen Beijing’s position across the Eurasian landmass. 

The two arcs are the culmination of several overlapping rivalries: Israel and Turkey over regional leadership after the current Iran conflict ends; Saudi Arabia and the UAE over leadership in the Arab and Muslim worlds; India and Pakistan over South Asian primacy; and Turkey and India over the routes connecting Asia to Europe. The last is less visible but increasingly apparent in the South Caucasus, where India has emerged as a major arms supplier to Armenia, counterbalancing the “one nation, two states” partnership between Turkey and Azerbaijan.

The Middle East has not yet hardened into rival blocs. Saudi Arabia, for........

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