Photo: Julia Maudlin, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Senior officials from Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkey met Iranian leaders in Tehran on Monday for the first high-level contact between Iran and all of the countries in the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement since Saudi Arabia was drawn deeper into the wider Middle East war, in a new attempt to pull the region back from further escalation.
Saudi Arabia's Defence Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman led the Saudi delegation. Pakistan was represented by army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir and Turkey by intelligence chief Ibrahim Kalin, according to Saudi and Iranian officials. On the Iranian side, the meeting was to include President Masoud Pezeshkian and Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, with Iran's deputy security chief Ali Bagheri Kani confirming the participants on state television.
Saudi Deputy Minister for Public Diplomacy Rayed Krimly said on X that the visit was part of the continued efforts by the Makkah Joint Defence Agreement countries for de-escalation, promoting dialogue and diplomatic solutions, and supporting mediation efforts by Qatar and Pakistan. The National reported that it was the first time senior officials from the pact's countries had engaged in direct talks with Iran since the agreement was signed in August.
Why the meeting matters now
The talks come at a dangerous moment. Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis have stepped up missile and drone attacks on Saudi airports, ports and oil installations in recent weeks, turning Saudi Arabia — a close United States ally — into a pressure point in the wider war between the United States, Israel and Iran. At the same time, rhetoric between Washington and Tehran has grown more heated, with both sides drawing up plans that could restart the wider war, possibly after the United States midterm elections on November 3, Reuters reported.
The timing also matters for Israel, which holds elections on Tuesday, and for the United States, where voters go to the polls on November 3. President Donald Trump said on Friday that Washington may carry out another military operation against Iran, using the military's name for its war against Iran, while also speaking of a possible agreement. On Sunday he said there would not be a strike that day — a statement already covered on this blog — but he has left open what happens next.
A pact built for collective defence
Under the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement, signed in August, an armed attack on one member is considered an attack on all. Reuters reported that the agreement's first article says the parties shall use all necessary means to eliminate threats to one another's territorial integrity, sovereignty or internationally recognised borders.
Ministers from the pact countries held an emergency meeting in Riyadh earlier this month and agreed to ensure the rapid deployment of military forces and capabilities in Saudi Arabia. Pakistan approved the pact last week, Reuters reported, while efforts by Turkey's parliament to ratify it began last week and were still under way.
That background is what makes Monday's meeting different from routine diplomacy. The same countries that pledged to defend one another are now sitting down together with Iran, the country at the centre of the wider war, rather than only talking through intermediaries.
Monday's fighting continues in parallel
Diplomacy did not pause the fighting on Monday. The Houthis said on Monday that they had attacked Saudi Arabia's East-West crude oil pumping stations and Riyadh airport, Reuters reported — but there was no immediate Saudi confirmation of that claim, and it should be treated as a claim by the group, not as a confirmed strike.
The Saudi-led coalition said earlier on Monday that it had destroyed two ballistic missile launchers in the Yemeni capital Sanaa, including one used to fire a missile towards Riyadh that the coalition said it had intercepted. Saudi Arabia intercepted another wave of missiles and drones on Sunday as fighting with the Houthis continued, Reuters reported.
What the talks do not yet show
No agreement or joint statement from Monday's meeting had been reported at the time of writing, and the meeting's outcome remains unknown. Pakistan's military media wing and Turkey's Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment, Reuters reported.
A senior Iranian official said Pakistan initiated the meeting during Munir's visit to Tehran last week, when he met Pezeshkian and other senior officials. During that visit, Iranian officials told him there would be no talks with Washington until Tehran's demands were met, according to Iranian media cited by Reuters. Qatari mediators also met Iranian officials in Tehran on Sunday, Reuters reported, as Qatar continued its long-running mediating role between Tehran and Washington.
For now, Monday's talks are best read as a first, high-level attempt at de-escalation by the Mecca Pact countries themselves — not as a settlement. Whether they produce a pause in Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia, a path back to talks between Washington and Tehran, or simply another round of warnings will become clear only in what the participants say and do next.
Sources: Reuters, AFP via Oman Observer, Arab News, The National