Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Pakistan have made a key decision. The three countries have signed a joint defense agreement. Under this agreement, they have declared that an attack on any one of these three countries will be considered an attack on the other two as well. This decision was officially announced at a meeting held in the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia, attended jointly by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
With Saudi Arabia being drawn into the ongoing war between the US and Iran, and with shipping through the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea being severely disrupted, the three countries are looking to further strengthen their security ties. It is already known that Saudi Arabia and Pakistan had signed a joint defense agreement last year.
After the US and Israel carried out strikes on Iran on February 28 this year, Iran and its allied groups began attacking targets in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries and disrupting their shipping. In Yemen, the Iran-backed Houthi rebels, who control the northern part of the country, are fighting against government forces backed by the Saudi-led coalition. Last month, the Houthis declared a naval blockade against Saudi Arabia and carried out a series of attacks on Saudi airports, oil facilities, and tankers in the Red Sea.
In response to these attacks, Saudi Arabia not only conducted airstrikes on Houthi positions but also formed a new naval coalition to protect shipping in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. In this context, announcing the joint agreement on Friday, Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs made clear that an attack on any of the three countries would be regarded as an attack on all of them.