On August 8 (local time), according to Xinhua news agency, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan affirmed that the new Makkah Mutual Defense Agreement signed between Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan is not aimed at Iran but only defensive against attacks from outside.
In an interview with Turkey's Anadolu news agency, Mr. Fidan said that the agreement does not identify a specific common threat.
There is no common threat clearly stated in the document," Mr. Fidan said, while emphasizing that the agreement is not aimed at any country that does not attack signatory countries.
Iran is not in the goal of this agreement," the Turkish Foreign Minister affirmed.
According to Mr. Fidan, the preparation process for the agreement has been carried out for nearly 2 years and 8 months, with the participation of signatory countries and some other countries in the region.
He described the mechanism of the agreement as having technical similarities with Article 5 of NATO, which stipulates the principle of collective self-defense and allows members to support each other when a country is attacked.
Under this mechanism, the attacked country will have to request support and determine the type of support needed. Forms of support may include intelligence, logistics, ammunition or deployment of military units, depending on the scale of the threat.
Foreign Minister Fidan said that the coalition will establish a political and military committee, including foreign ministers, defense ministers and chiefs of staff of member countries. A secretariat located in Saudi Arabia will be responsible for supervising the implementation of the agreement.
Mr. Fidan also said that some countries have expressed interest in joining the agreement. He believes that Egypt will participate in the next phase.
The agreement was signed by Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan in Saudi Arabia's city of Makkah on August 7. According to the content of the agreement, an armed attack on any of the three countries will be considered an attack on all three.
The signing took place in the context of increasing geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, causing the new defense agreement to attract attention to the possibility of reshaping security mechanisms and military cooperation in the region.
