The Mecca agreement’s message to Washington

The tripartite Mecca Joint Defense Agreement between Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan has prompted considerable speculation as to its ultimate purpose.

It is not entirely a new idea. Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have been close for decades and signed a defense cooperation agreement only last year. Turkey and Pakistan were once partners in the Central Treaty Organization — a Cold War NATO look-alike that included Iran and Iraq but collapsed in March 1979, one month after the Shah fell from power. 

On the other hand, Turkish-Saudi relations have a long, checkered and complex past. In the early twentieth century, the Ottomans fought Abdul Aziz, leader of the Saud family and forced him to flee to Kuwait. During World War I, Turkish general Fakhri Pasha removed the prophet Mohammed’s relics — which include his sword, his bows, his seal and his tooth — and brought them from Mecca to Istanbul, where they are now on display in Topkapi Palace.

Turkey first recognized the Saudi state in 1927, but relations have become exceedingly tense in the recent past. In 2014 Saudi Arabia blocked Turkey’s bid for non-permanent membership on the United Nations Security Council. When Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates blockaded Qatar from 2017 to 2021, Ankara sided with Qatar, which, like Turkey, supported the Muslim Brotherhood.

The Saudis and Turks also clashed over the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. However, they now jointly support the internationally recognized Libyan, Sudanese and Somali governments — unlike the United Arab Emirates, which supports alternative regimes in all three........

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