Can ‘Islamic NATO’ reign in both Israel and Iran?

The Mecca pact links Riyadh, Ankara, and Islamabad in a new security framework that could reshape regional deterrence The signing of the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement by Saudi Arabia, Türkiye, and Pakistan may eventually be remembered as one of the more consequential geopolitical developments to emerge from the current Middle Eastern crisis.Signed in Mecca by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, the agreement establishes a remarkably clear principle of collective defense, under which an armed attack against any one of the three states is to be regarded as an attack against all. The parties have not yet disclosed how this commitment would operate in practice, what level of military assistance it would automatically trigger, or whether common command and planning mechanisms will eventually follow, but these uncertainties do little to diminish the political significance of the arrangement. For the first time, three of the most influential states of the broader Muslim world have formally connected their national security in a framework that potentially combines Saudi financial and political weight, ...