The Mecca pact, Tehran's first critical reaction

An Iranian official reacted critically to the defense agreement signed on Friday in Mecca by Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan. According to Al Jazeera, Ebrahim Rezaei, a member of the Iranian parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, argued that a written agreement with Turkey and Pakistan alone will not be enough to guarantee security for Saudi Arabia. This is the first public reaction attributed to a Tehran official following the signing of the deal.

The agreement, called the Mecca Joint Deterrence Agreement, was signed by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman, and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. The text comes against a backdrop marked by attacks that Iran and its allies have carried out against Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states, including the blockade of energy shipments, following the US and Israeli strike on February 28.

The specific weight of the three signatories explains the attention given to the agreement: Turkey has NATO’s second-largest army, Saudi Arabia is the world’s leading oil exporter, and Pakistan is the only Muslim nation with nuclear weapons. The combination of military, energy and nuclear capabilities under a single mutual defense commitment constitutes, according to Al Jazeera and CNN, a new element in the region’s security arrangements.

In the statement reported, Rezaei limited himself to questioning the agreement’s effectiveness as a deterrent, and the available excerpts do not provide further details on the Iranian position. Tensions in the Gulf nonetheless remain high due to attacks by Iran and its allies on Saudi energy infrastructure, which have continued following the US and Israeli operation at the end of February.

The agreement signed in Mecca is documented by two independent sources — Al Jazeera, which reports the joint statement from the three governments, and CNN, which independently cites the text of the agreement via Reuters — a level of verification higher than many other stories about the region currently circulating with a single source. Rezaei’s statement, on the other hand, currently comes from a single source (Al Jazeera); no independent confirmation is available.

It remains to be seen whether the lawmaker’s words will be followed by concrete steps from Tehran, or whether the reaction will remain an isolated stance. For now, two facts are certain: Friday’s signing in Mecca and the first critical response from a member of the Iranian parliament.