Iran is reviewing an invitation to join the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement signed by Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Turkiye, the head of the Iranian parliament’s official news agency said in an interview with Al Mayadeen on 23 August.

Mehdi Rahimi stated Iran had received an invitation to join the agreement and was currently considering the proposal.

Rahimi praised the “efforts of states in West Asia to create a regional security umbrella,” saying Iran has long advocated for such an initiative.

The recent war with Iran proved to everyone that Washington destabilized West Asia instead of fulfilling its promises to provide its allies in the region with security, he added.

The invitation has not yet been officially confirmed by Iran’s Foreign Ministry or by any of the three members of the Mecca Agreement.

The agreement was signed on 7 August by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS), Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

It establishes a principle of mutual defense similar to Article 5 of the NATO Treaty under which an attack on any one of the three countries would be considered an attack on all of them.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said on 10 August that Tehran had “no reason for concern” over the establishment of the alliance.

In a written interview published by Saudi newspaper Asharq al-Awsat on 12 August, Turkish President Erdogan stated the agreement was not limited to its original members and that Ankara hopes it will grow to include every country in the region.

“Our vision for it is not limited to the three countries,” Erdogan said, “rather, we aspire for it to grow, and perhaps appropriate conditions will emerge one day for all countries of the region to gather under its umbrella, which would be the optimal step toward achieving lasting stability throughout the region.”

The Turkish president said it would be a mistake to treat the agreement as a reaction to the US-Israeli war on Iran and its cascading global effects, saying the step “was not born of the moment” and that the proposal had come up multiple times between the three signatories and other regional states.

However, the push for the pact followed the US-Israeli war on Iran, which began on 28 February and left Gulf states doubting the worth of Washington’s security umbrella after Iranian retaliation fell heavily on states hosting US bases.

As Erdogan opened the trilateral defense pact to new joiners, three Saudi sources told Middle East Eye (MEE) that Riyadh opposed Egypt’s inclusion, citing frustration with President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s government over its regional alignments and a belief that Cairo no longer carries the strategic or military weight it once did.

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Via https://thecradle.co/articles/iran-reviewing-invitation-to-join-mecca-joint-defense-agreement-report