Turkey says regional defense pact not against any country

Filed 1h ago · Via Courthouse News · The Buffoon Desk

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Kevin MacLeod · incompetech.com · CC BY 4.0

Photo: various · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons

Turkey's foreign minister Hakan Fidan announced after the first ministerial meeting of the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement that the pact binding Turkey, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia to mutual defense is not aimed at any state, and is open to others like Egypt.

The agreement arrives against the backdrop of the U.S.-Iran war and Houthi attacks in the region, timing Fidan did not address beyond insisting the pact rests on sovereignty and non-interference. Israel, meanwhile, announced its own $3.5 billion 'Achilles Shield' air defense deal with Greece the same day.

Fidan also used the press conference to call Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu 'not someone to be taken seriously,' following Turkey's push for an international arrest warrant against him over the Gaza flotilla interception.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.

✒ FROM THE EDITORIAL DESK

Nothing reassures the neighborhood quite like three militaries signing a mutual-defense pact and immediately clarifying it isn't about anyone specific, especially while missiles are already flying regionally. The insistence itself is the tell; treaties aimed at nobody don't usually need a press conference to say so.

Source: Read the original at Courthouse News → Scored: Double Polka · Kevin MacLeod · CC BY 4.0

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