Overview
- The Makkah Joint Defence Agreement was signed by Saudi Arabia, Türkiye and Pakistan on August 7 and includes a mutual‑defence clause that treats an attack on one member as an attack on all.
- On Sunday, August 23, Iranian parliamentary news chief Mehdi Rahimi told Al Mayadeen that Tehran had received an invitation to join and that the proposal was under review, though no formal confirmation has come from Iran’s foreign ministry or from the three founding states.
- Details about who extended the reported invitation and what membership would require remain unclear, and the public pact text does not set out exact invocation rules, an integrated command or specific military obligations for members.
- Other countries such as Bangladesh have publicly signalled interest in joining, underlining the pact’s potential to expand even as recent Houthi strikes on Saudi targets and cross‑border incidents show the arrangement has not yet been tested in practice.
- If Iran joins, the pact could reshape regional security by bringing long‑time rivals into a single framework, but it would also create legal and strategic friction with existing alliances and raise hard operational questions involving Türkiye’s NATO ties and Pakistan’s nuclear status.