Which country is the new Mecca defense pact targeting?

Turkey , Pakistan and Saudi Arabia sealed a historic defense pact on Friday, signing an agreement "intended to strengthen collective deterrence against any act of aggression."

The so-called "Mecca Joint Defense Agreement" between the three Sunni Muslim-majority states is meant to increase cooperation during regional uncertainty and threats from the Iran war.

The agreement was signed in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif .

The alliance has been likened to a NATO-style alliance and on Friday, the Pakistani foreign ministry said that an attack on any member would be regarded as an attack on all.

But experts and analysts have been quick to point out that the deal is unlikely to work that way — at least at first.

For example, on the weekend the Houthi rebel group in Yemen fired at Saudi Arabian oil facilities again. The Houthis consider Saudi Arabia their enemy and are also aligned with Iran. The latter has also targeted Saudi Arabia after the US and Israel attacked it, starting a war in late February, because it sees the Saudis as a US ally.

But following the Houthi attack on the weekend, neither Turkey nor Pakistan sprang to the Saudis' defense. Nor are they likely to attack Iran, analysts say. In fact, Pakistan is acting as a mediator between Iran and the US currently.

This arrangement is meant as more of a deterrent and as an "elastic defense pact," Dania Thafer, executive director of the Washington-based think tank the Gulf International Forum, or GIF, told DW late last week.