Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan have signed a joint defence agreement, declaring that an attack on any one of the three countries would be treated as an attack on all three.
The pact was announced at a meeting between Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in the Saudi city of Mecca. The three countries have been working to strengthen security ties as the war between the US and Iran has drawn in Saudi Arabia and disrupted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea. Saudi Arabia and Pakistan had already announced a bilateral defence pact last year.
Iran and its allies have launched attacks on targets in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states, and blockaded their shipments, since the US and Israel struck Iran on February 28. In Yemen, Iran-backed Houthi rebels, who control the north of the country, have continued fighting government forces backed by a Saudi-led coalition. Last month, the Houthis announced a “maritime embargo” against Saudi Arabia and targeted Saudi airports, oil facilities, and tankers in the Red Sea. Saudi Arabia has responded with strikes on Houthi positions and by forming a new naval coalition to protect shipping in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
Announcing the pact on Friday, Pakistan’s foreign ministry said an attack on any of the three states “shall be regarded as an attack against them all.”
