Updated

Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan signed a mutual defence pact under which an attack on any one of the three would be treated as an attack on all, following a meeting of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in Mecca on 7 August. The agreement comes amid the ongoing conflict between the US and Iran and heightened insecurity across the Gulf. Analysis published by Middle East Eye compared the new "Mecca pact" with the UAE's ties to Israel, which one European official described as a partnership with "no limits" but which is characterised as transactional, based on military and intelligence sharing. The comparison frames a broader contest over how Gulf and wider Muslim-world states position themselves as the Iran confrontation reshapes regional alignments.