Shaul Shay
(Senior research fellow at the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT) at the Interdisciplinary Centre Herzliya and former deputy head of Israel’s National Security Council)
Copyright: @ 2025 Research Institute for European and American Studies (www.rieas.gr) Publication date: 11 August 2026
Note: The article reflects the opinion of the author and not necessarily the views of the Research Institute for European and American Studies
The Mecca Joint Defense Agreement is a landmark trilateral mutual defense pact signed on August 7, 2026, in the holy city of Mecca by Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Pakistan, three of the Muslim world’s most influential states demonstrating a growing willingness among regional powers to coordinate more closely on security matters.[ Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkey sign Mecca Joint Defense Agreement, Al Arabiya, August 7, 2026.]
The Mecca Joint Defense Agreement stipulates that an armed attack on any of the countries will be treated as an attack against all of them. This is a message of deterrence to potential aggressors that any attack will not remain a limited confrontation involving a single country and it could trigger a collective response involving three significant regional powers.... Read more