Mecca Pact Creates Sunni Bloc, Triggers Regional Unease

Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Pakistan signed a trilateral defense pact in Mecca on August 7, establishing a new security alliance intended to strengthen collective deterrence.

The agreement states that an attack on any of the three countries will be regarded as an attack against all. Pakistan's foreign ministry confirmed this clause, which is similar to NATO's Article 5. This pact formalizes the emergence of a conservative Sunni Islamic bloc, seen as a strategic counterweight to Israel and Iran. The agreement has triggered unease in the United Arab Emirates, with a former UAE presidential aide mocking Pakistan's economic and social challenges while questioning its role in defending Saudi Arabia under the new arrangement.

The aide cited Pakistan's poverty, illiteracy, internal instability, and military rule, highlighting its nuclear arsenal of 170 bombs as its primary qualification. This new pact appears similar to a previous Strategic Mutual Defense Agreement between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, which also included a clause treating aggression against one as aggression against both. In a past instance, following an Iranian strike on Saudi Arabia, Pakistan sent troops, fighter jets, and an air defense system but did not fully enter the conflict.