Saudi, Turkish and Pakistani officials to hold talks in Tehran

Delegations from Saudi Arabia, Turkiye and Pakistan, the members of the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement, will meet Iranian officials in Tehran. It is their first joint high-level contact with Iran since Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia escalated, as the US-Israeli war on Iran continues and Saudi Arabia becomes a pressure point in it. The meeting shows a new regional defence bloc, with mutual-defence obligations, being drawn into the war's diplomacy, which widens the number of states with a direct stake in whether the conflict spreads.