Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Pakistan to sign defense pact amid regional tensions

Three of the world's most strategically significant Muslim-majority nations — oil-rich Saudi Arabia, NATO-member Turkey, and nuclear-armed Pakistan — gathered in Jeddah on Friday to formalize a defense partnership that reflects both the fracturing of old alliances and the search for new ones. The agreement arrives at a moment when the Middle East's familiar architecture of power is under strain, with Iranian-linked strikes on Saudi infrastructure, Turkish-Israeli tensions over Gaza, and a region still absorbing the shockwaves of multiple active conflicts. What is being signed is not merely a m