None
EN
The Mecca Defense Pact Looks Toothless. That Doesn’t Mean It’s Harmless.
['Sinan Ciddi', 'Ahmad Sharawi', 'Tomer Almagor', 'Kenneth M. Pollack', 'Surya Gowda', 'James P. Sutton', 'Evan Spear', 'Ross Anderson', 'John Aziz']
The Dispatch
On Friday, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif signed the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement, committing each state to treating an armed attack on one as an attack on all.
Two days later, Iranian-backed Houthi forces struck an Aramco refinery in southwest Saudi Arabia with a drone, the latest in a long run of strikes on the kingdom.