Prior to the signing of the Makkah Joint Defense Agreement between Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Türkiye last week, Riyadh had previously signed a joint strategic defense agreement with Islamabad in September 2025 at Al-Yamamah Palace in the capital, Riyadh. This prior accord shared the same context and objectives: deterrence and the protection of mutual interests. In practice, the Riyadh-Islamabad agreement was activated by a decline in Iranian attacks on the Kingdom over the past months, as Tehran outsourced this task to other parties in Iraq and Yemen to deflect responsibility.
However, the confusing and unstable regional situation prompted Riyadh to engineer a strategy that will create a new reality in the region through the formation of a trilateral bloc comprising Riyadh, Islamabad, and Ankara. The Makkah agreement is, first and foremost, the outcome of the success of Saudi diplomacy in strengthening its relations with countries in the region and the world, as well as its keenness to crown its defense steps with an announced, legitimate cover and achieve mutual interests for friendly nations.
Following the signing, official statements from the parties to the agreement were consistent in emphasizing three points: the agreement does not target a specific sect, nor does it target specific countries, and its tasks are fundamentally focused on deterrence and defense rather than aggression.
Iranian propaganda claiming that the agreement targets a specific sect is baseless, and Iran has failed to even market this allegation. Furthermore, the parties to the agreement stressed that it does not target specific countries. The three nations are influential powers - economically, politically, and militarily. They are not militias, nor do they operate in secrecy. Their agreement is not directed at Iran specifically, nor at Israel, which is anxious over what its press has labeled an "Islamic NATO."
Since the beginning of the US-Israeli war on Tehran in February, Tehran has heavily directed its offensive forces toward the Gulf states and Jordan, as well as their civilian institutions. This was used as a leverage card against the US, signaling that its regional allies are under the threat of its missiles and drones. The Gulf states and Jordan did not respond militarily to these attacks, refusing to grant Iran its objective of expanding the scope of the war and igniting the region in a furnace of turmoil whose end only God knows.
In reality, the United States' plan was offensive against Iranian territory and did not account for a defense plan for its allies, who took it upon themselves to intercept the attacks and succeeded in defending their territories. If Iran's ballistic program, which it has been developing for decades, has produced 8,000 missiles according to statistics, this implies a need for the same number of anti-missile interceptors, let alone easily manufactured drones.
Pakistan is an advanced nuclear state that continues to develop its military industry, particularly within the framework of its naval forces, due to its proximity to India, which it views as a strategic adversary. Türkiye is a member of the NATO alliance, which was established to execute defensive and offensive military actions, and possesses advanced military manufacturing programs. Nevertheless, it is attempting to expand its arsenal with foreign industries, as is the case with the Russian S-400 air defense system and its negotiations to purchase American F-35 fighter jets.
Saudi Arabia has directed its energy resources toward civilian development, state-building, and international cooperation for more than eight decades. However, today it is entering the field of military manufacturing in a turbulent region that has persistently remained like a powder keg, ready to ignite with the smallest spark. Such industries require time, experts, and partners for technology transfer and training. Yet, until then, securing a portion of defensive security by building partnerships and implementing agreements with friendly nations is undoubtedly a clever strategy with which Riyadh has surprised the region.
Such an agreement may endure for a long time without any expectation of needing to activate it. However, its mere existence as a glowing red warning sign amid regional developments will alter the calculations of aggressive states and foster immense public optimism among the countries of the region, which celebrated this agreement not only for security reasons, but also as a symbol of Islamic solidarity representing over a billion Muslims.
