Overview

• IRGC Major General Yahya Rahim Safavi said Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Iraq could form a collective defense arrangement.
• The Saudi-Pakistan accord, signed in Riyadh by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, commits each to treat an attack on one as an attack on both.
• Pakistan’s defence minister, Khawaja Asif, stated that the agreement does not involve selling nuclear weapons to Saudi Arabia.
• Pakistan’s deputy prime minister, Ishaq Dar, said several other countries have expressed interest in pursuing similar defense agreements with Islamabad.
• Safavi framed his proposal around a perceived decline in U.S. regional influence and urged Muslim-majority states to consider a coordinated security bloc.