Turkish FM: New Trilateral Defence Pact Does Not Target Iran

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan stated on Saturday that the newly signed Makkah Joint Defence Agreement does not target Iran. He emphasised that the agreement is defensive in nature and aims to protect the involved parties from external attack. In an interview with Turkey’s Anadolu Agency, Fidan said no common threat was specified in written form. He added that the agreement does not target any country that does not attack the signatories. “Iran is not a target in this agreement,” he said. Fidan stated that preparations for the agreement had been underway for nearly two years and eight months, involving the signatory parties and other regional countries. Fidan said the agreement is technically similar to NATO’s Article 5 on collective defence, allowing its members to benefit from mutual defence support. A country under attack needs to submit a request for assistance and determine the type of support required, ranging from intelligence and logistics to ammunition or military units, depending on the scale of the threat, he said. “The alliance will have political and military committees composed of foreign and defence ministers and chiefs of general staff, with a secretariat in Saudi Arabia overseeing its implementation,” he said. Fidan said several countries have shown interest in joining the agreement, expressing confidence that Egypt, which he called a “natural partner”, will “join us in the next stage”. The agreement, signed on Friday by Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Pakistan in the city of Makkah, Saudi Arabia, stipulates that any armed attack against one of the three countries will be considered an attack against all three. The timing of the signing is widely seen as linked to rising geopolitical tensions in the Middle East.