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Mecca Defence Alliance Gets a Name, a Secretariat and a NATO-style Committee



Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan met in Istanbul hours after Washington and Tehran resumed direct strikes


Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan gave their three-week-old defence pact an institutional skeleton on Monday, naming it the Mecca Defence Alliance and agreeing to seat its permanent secretariat in Riyadh under a Pakistani secretary-general.

The decisions came out of the first meeting of the Strategic Political and Defence Committee, held at Istanbul's Çırağan Palace. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan led his delegation with Defence Minister Yaşar Güler and Chief of the General Staff Gen. Selçuk Bayraktaroğlu. Saudi Arabia sent Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan, Defence Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman and Gen. Fayyad bin Hamed al-Ruwaili. Pakistan was represented by Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif and army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir.

Fidan said the alliance would run through a ministerial committee modelled on NATO's structure, and that Ankara was drafting an accession roadmap for prospective members. He called the pact the start of a new security and cooperation architecture, insisted it neither replaces nor dilutes Turkey's NATO obligations, and repeated that it identifies neither Iran nor any other state as a threat. The ministers discussed military coordination, joint production in the defence industry and counterterrorism.

Signed in Mecca on 7 August by Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Mohammed bin Salman and Shehbaz Sharif, the agreement extends to Turkey the Saudi-Pakistani mutual defence commitment of September 2025. It treats an armed attack on one signatory as an attack on all — a clause Fidan has likened to NATO's Article 5, while noting that assistance would be requested and defined by the state under attack, ranging from intelligence to ammunition or troops.

The committee convened hours after Washington and Tehran traded fire for the first time in a month. US forces struck two rocket launchers on Iran's Larak Island on Sunday, the first such attack since July; the Revolutionary Guard then fired ballistic missiles toward American bases in Jordan and claimed a drone strike on Al Minhad in the United Arab Emirates. Amman reported intercepting eight missiles; Abu Dhabi denied Al Minhad was hit. With the Strait of Hormuz under de facto Iranian closure since 28 February, Brent crude rose above $90 a barrel on Monday.

Expansion is the open question. Dar has said six or seven Muslim-majority states have expressed interest; Erdoğan has named Egypt as a candidate, and Dhaka has publicly signalled it is weighing membership. Tehran, reportedly invited to join, has been dismissive; one Iranian lawmaker called the pact a paper agreement.

 

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