Lorenzo Maria Pacini
The Mecca Pact confirms that the U.S. guarantee is no longer the only option on the table for the Gulf monarchies.
Deterrence or theater?
On August 7, 2026, in the holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Turkey signed an agreement on joint defense. The choice of location is no coincidence: signing a military pact in the symbolic heart of Islam lends the agreement a weight that its content, as far as is known, would not be sufficient on its own to guarantee.