WHAT is the Makkah defense pact? In brief, the Makkah Defense Pact represents the biggest transformation since the upheaval brought about by the Second World War. After the war, a new map of the world was drawn. The Ottoman Empire was dismantled and the Middle East was subjected to successive divisions. The world was effectively divided into two halves: one belonging to the Soviet Union and the other to the United States. Many countries and nations inhabited these two worlds. In theory, they were independent. Sovereignty was supposedly theirs, but how much sovereignty and of what kind? Much remains unsaid. Much was said about freedom, but much could not be said at all. That, essentially, was their freedom—and their sovereignty.
After the Makkah Defense Pact, all of this is beginning to unravel. Some has already collapsed and more will follow. The Muslim world will increasingly make its own decisions about its destiny. This is not merely a great transformation of our time; it is a major turning point in history. Therefore, there is no harm in reaching this conclusion: whether one calls it the Maarka e Haq or the war in the Middle East, the greatest good to have emerged from these conflicts is precisely this. (Recognition had to be earned through great struggle and effort.)
This achievement did not emerge easily from the jaws of these wars. It required immense effort, in which Pakistan and its civil and military leadership played a pivotal role. It did not happen merely because Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was saluted by Field Marshal Asim Munir and returned the salute or because the leadership of Saudi Arabia and Turkiye insisted that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif stand alongside them. Those who interpret this arrangement merely as a consequence of Pakistan’s domestic politics understand neither its national politics nor the extraordinary historical significance of the Makkah Pact. But that is a lengthy debate. The point is that Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkiye wrested this achievement from the jaws of their adversaries. How?
Two developments may help explain the answer. First, during the war, the adversary tried to lure Saudi Arabia into the conflict by trapping it in a deliberately spread web. It was an extremely delicate moment. Saudi Arabia showed wisdom and restraint. Thus, the attempt to drag it into the war provoked by Israel and the United States failed. May have been a conspiracy, but there is no denying that Iran did launch attacks on Saudi Arabia and some other countries. Their purpose was particularly interesting: to persuade these countries to pressure the United States to end the war and leave the region. Those who regard Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries as American allies might have expected them to retaliate against Iran. Such a development would certainly have delighted the United States, Israel and Israel-friendly figures such as Lindsey Graham. But that did not happen. Saudi Arabia and others did what Iran wanted: they refrained from retaliatory attacks while pressuring the United States to end the war and leave the region. This is the other side of the picture that experts in international dynamics have largely avoided discussing.
Something Iran itself had sought: pressing for the departure of the United States. Riyadh made clear to Washington that the objectives for which America had entered the region, particularly the protection of its partners, had not been achieved. There was therefore no longer justification for its continued military presence in the Arab world. If the US withdraws, Israel may increasingly become its principal regional base, while the military power emerging from the Makkah Defense Pact could fill the resulting vacuum. This would reshape not only the Middle East but the wider global balance of power.
The implications of the pact are far-reaching. They encompass the Middle East, the Palestinian issue, Israel’s expansionist ambitions and India’s aggressive designs against Pakistan. Yet the most important question is whether the pact is directed against Iran and whether Tehran genuinely opposes it. So far, circumstances have produced no evidence to support such an assumption. Indeed, the new Middle East emerging under Saudi leadership is not necessarily contrary to Iran’s interests; in several respects, it reflects objectives Iran itself has long pursued. The pact may therefore represent a broader regional realignment rather than an anti-Iran alliance.
Another defining feature is the significance accorded to Pakistan. Pakistan has emerged as one of the region’s most important powers, while Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Türkiye have together acquired the potential to form an influential global power bloc. Their combined military capability, strategic interests and geopolitical weight could redefine regional security architecture and influence the wider international order. History may well remember the leaders behind this transformation—Pakistan’s Prime Minister and Field Marshal, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince and Türkiye’s President—for laying the foundations of a new strategic order.
—This writer is former advisor to the President of Pakistan, author & mass media theorist.
(farooq.adilbhuta@gmail,com)
