Madar (International) - Syria's government is weighing whether to enter a mutual defence pact with Saudi Arabia, Turkiye and Pakistan, Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani said, Al Jazeera English reported on Saturday, October 31, 2026, citing AFP and Anadolu.
"Discussions are currently under way to evaluate Syria's entry into the Mecca alliance," al-Shaibani told the Manama Dialogue conference in Bahrain. In August, during a visit to Islamabad, the minister had said Syria was considering joining the agreement but had not yet made a final decision, according to the Qatar News Agency.
Saudi Arabia, Turkiye and Pakistan signed the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement in Mecca in August. It states that an attack on one country is to be considered an attack on all three, and has been compared to NATO. Saudi Arabia, under heavy fire from Yemen's Houthis, is a key backer of the Syrian government led by President Ahmed al-Sharaa, which came to power after the fall of Bashar al-Assad in December 2024.
Under the pact, Pakistan and Turkiye have pledged military support to Riyadh as it faces escalating Houthi attacks, although neither has announced any attacks on the group. Officials in Turkiye, where ratification is ongoing, have said any future military support would not include deploying Turkish troops to fight in Yemen.
Al-Shaibani said Damascus was an "integral" part of regional security and would support any framework aimed at protecting regional stability, stressing the region was "in greater need than ever" of joint deterrence and defence systems. He also said Syria backs the efforts of Yemen's internationally recognised government to restore "sovereignty and stability across its entire territory", Syrian state media reported.
The minister also said Israel had carried out more than 1,000 attacks on Syria in less than two years, killing dozens of people. "How can calls for border control and placing weapons exclusively under state control be justified while Syrian sovereignty is violated and targeted on a daily basis?" he asked.
