Saudi Arabia Secures Powerful New Defense Pact with Pakistan and Turkey

Saudi Arabia has entered into a landmark defense pact with Pakistan and Turkey, two of the Muslim world's most formidable military powers. The agreement, signed in Mecca on Friday, consolidates their longstanding security ties into a collective-defense alliance that stipulates an attack against any of them 'shall be regarded as attack on them all.'

The pact gives Saudi Arabia a powerful new layer of protection beyond its longstanding security partnership with the United States amid growing regional doubts over whether Washington can still be relied upon to protect its oil-rich Gulf allies.

Turkey has the second-largest military in NATO, behind only the US, while Pakistan is the only nuclear-armed Muslim nation. The agreement solidifies deepening military ties between these nations and presents a united Sunni-led military front against a mounting Iranian threat.