Mecca Pact, Activated

Filed 47m ago · Via Foreign Policy · The Buffoon Desk

THIS STORY IS SCORED

Evil March

Kevin MacLeod · incompetech.com · CC BY 4.0

Photo: gdsteam · CC BY 2.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Turkey activated the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement this week, just two months after signing it, as Houthi strikes on Riyadh and regional airports continue. The pact formally pulls Pakistan and Turkey into Saudi Arabia's conflict with the Yemen-based group, though both countries have been vague about what military support they'll actually provide.

Turkey's foreign minister said Ankara is still assessing its role and ruled out joining offensive operations, while noting Turkey's parliament hasn't even ratified the agreement yet. Pakistan has taken a more visible leadership role, naming a retired lieutenant general as the pact's first secretary-general, but its government denied a New York Times report that Pakistani fighter jets were already striking Houthi targets, calling it fabricated.

Analysts quoted in the piece note the pact's bylaws are barely settled and this is an earlier real-world test than any signatory likely wanted, though they also argue Saudi Arabia's push to activate it signals the agreement has substance beyond paper.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.

✒ FROM THE EDITORIAL DESK

Signing a defense pact and then triggering it two months later, before the ink's legal status is even settled, is a bit like co-signing a loan and getting the repo call before the first payment's due. Everybody involved is talking tough and moving careful at the same time, which tells you they know exactly how messy this could get. The denial about fighter jets is doing a lot of work for a report that was supposedly just made up.

Source: Read the original at Foreign Policy → Scored: Evil March · Kevin MacLeod · CC BY 4.0