Symbolic imageAnkara says Mecca defence pact could widen to Egypt
Turkey's foreign minister Hakan Fidan says Egypt could join the defence pact signed on Friday by Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan. Islamabad calls it purely defensive.
Fidan told Anadolu Agency late on Saturday that Egypt would join "at the next stage", once a few technical issues are resolved. He added that no common threat is written into the text, answering critics who read the alliance as aimed at Iran. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif signed the pact on Friday, 7 August; it treats an armed attack on one of the three as an attack on all.
Islamabad's reading of the text
Pakistan's foreign minister Ishaq Dar wrote on Sunday that the accord is "purely defensive" and open to states ready to settle differences peacefully, grounding it in Article 51 of the UN Charter.
Tehran keeps its distance
Iran's foreign ministry has issued no formal statement. Hossein Noushabadi, a director general at the ministry, told ISNA on Saturday that Tehran reads the pact mainly as a sign of shrinking US presence; the analyst Hamidreza Azizi sees a longer-term risk of coordinated pressure on Iran.
An opening for Beijing
The South China Morning Post sees the fraying US-Gulf security bargain opening room for China in the region.
Other opinions
The Tehran Times reads the pact as proof that American protection has a ceiling; the Jerusalem Post calls Riyadh's turn to Turkey and Pakistan a setback for Israel.