In the shadow of a grinding US-Iran conflict and an emboldened Houthi campaign across the Red Sea, Turkey and Pakistan have pledged their swords to Saudi Arabia under a newly minted trilateral pact called the Mecca Defence Alliance. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, speaking this week, framed the commitment as a deliberate effort to shield Riyadh from being drawn into a wider war it has not sought. The alliance, signed in August 2026 by Saudi, Turkish, and Pakistani leaders, invokes the ancient principle that a wound to one is a wound to all — though whether its institutions are yet strong