Saudi-Turkey-Pakistan pact signals Middle East realignment, not US replacement

In the shadow of a destabilizing US-Israeli war against Iran, three of the Islamic world's most consequential powers gathered in Mecca to sign a mutual defence pact — a quiet but telling act of strategic self-reliance. Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Pakistan have pledged to treat an attack on any one of them as an attack on all, not to defy Washington, but to hedge against a future in which Washington may not always answer. The agreement is less a declaration of independence than a recognition that the old architecture of regional security, built on American guarantees, is showing its age.