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Turkey, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia plan defence pact as US-Iran row threatens Middle East
Iran’s neighbours are worried that the US’ increasingly erratic behaviour may pose a risk to regional power balance and trade, analysts say
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As tensions between the United States and Iran threaten to plunge the Middle East into chaos again, regional military powers Turkey and Pakistan have revealed they are planning a tripartite defence partnership with Saudi Arabia.
Thursday’s disclosure comes as Iran’s neighbours await clarity on US President Donald Trump’s announcement of a 25 per cent tariff on the Islamic Republic’s trading partners earlier in the week – a measure which threatens to disrupt supply chains across the region.
The proposed trilateral agreement “is something that is already in the pipeline”, Pakistan’s defence production minister Raza Hayat Harraj told Reuters news agency on Thursday.
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It was separate to nuclear-armed Pakistan and Saudi Arabia’s mutual defence agreement, signed in September, soon after Israeli warplanes attacked Hamas negotiators in Qatar, he said, indicating that the proposed deal was not likely to include Nato-like commitments to come to each other’s aid in the event of conflict.
Turkish foreign minister Hakan Fidan, addressing a press conference in Ankara on Thursday, confirmed that negotiations with regional states – which he declined to name – have been under way since early last year.
Although an agreement had yet to be reached, Fidan said the proposed security mechanism would act as a shared platform for “all regional nations”, whose issues could be resolved if they could “be sure of each other”.
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