29OCT

Rezaei hosts Mecca pact chiefs in Tehran

3 min read

17:49UTC

Saudi Arabia's defence minister, Pakistan's army chief and Turkey's spy chief met Iran's security council secretary in Tehran. Each side then told a different story about why.

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ConflictAssessed

Key takeaway

Tehran called the meeting a regional security order; Riyadh called it support for mediation.

On Monday 26 October Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), hosted Saudi Defence Minister Khalid bin Salman, Pakistan's army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir and Ibrahim Kalin, head of Turkey's intelligence service, in Tehran⁠¹. President Masoud Pezeshkian also met the delegations. The joint statement says only that "the participants agreed to continue the dialogue to strengthen cooperation among the four regional countries, including for peace and security in the region".

Rezaei said afterwards that "West Asia's security must be based on the countries of the region", IRNA reported⁠², a line absent from the joint statement. Saudi Arabia described the visit as support for mediation by Qatar and Pakistan⁠³. Tehran's version casts the pact states as partners in a Gulf order without Washington; Riyadh's casts them as couriers.

The three guests speak for the states of the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement, the mutual-defence pact Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan signed on 7 August. They invoked it in Riyadh on 5 October after attacks on Saudi Arabia, which the statement did not attribute. Riyadh and Ankara sent security men, not diplomats; their foreign ministers had met Britain, France and Germany in Istanbul three days earlier. Egypt, the fourth state at the Istanbul table, did not come to Tehran.

Munir was back in Tehran six days after Pezeshkian told him sanctions must be lifted before any negotiations.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan signed a mutual-defence pact in Mecca in August. Each promised to help the others if attacked. On 26 October senior security figures from all three went to Tehran to meet Iran's top security official, Mohsen Rezaei. Iran's president, Masoud Pezeshkian, also met them. Their joint statement only said they would keep talking. Iran then claimed the meeting backed security run by the region's own countries. Saudi Arabia said it was there to support peace talks run by Qatar and Pakistan.

Deep Analysis

Root Causes

The Mecca Joint Defence Agreement was invoked over attacks on Saudi Arabia. Each attack raises the chance of a clash between pact forces and Iran or its allies, which gives all four states a reason to open a channel between their militaries.

Pakistan carries a particular exposure. It borders Iran, has a large Shia minority, and sits in a pact with Riyadh. Field Marshal Asim Munir returned to Tehran six days after Pezeshkian told him sanctions must go before any talks, which suggests Islamabad's mediation and its pact duty now run through the same man.

Escalation

Flat to slightly downward. The meeting created a direct channel between Iran and three pact militaries but produced no commitment beyond further dialogue, and Houthi missiles were fired at Riyadh the next day.

What could happen next?

Meaning
Iran now has a security channel to Riyadh's defence ministry that does not depend on Qatari or Pakistani mediators.
Short term · Suggested
Risk
Divergent public accounts from Tehran and Riyadh leave the meeting open to being disowned if attacks on Saudi Arabia continue.
Short term · Suggested
Precedent
Egypt's absence shows the Istanbul grouping and the Tehran grouping are different clubs.
Medium term · Suggested

Source Landscape

This story draws on neutral-leaning sources from Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia

Primary parallel: The Saudi-Iranian deal of 10 March 2023, brokered in Beijing, was negotiated by Iran's then security council secretary Ali Shamkhani and Saudi national security adviser Musaed al-Aiban, not by foreign ministers. Security chiefs reopened embassies that diplomats had failed to reopen for seven years.

Counter-parallel: Turkey, Pakistan and Iran once sat in one pact, the Central Treaty Organization, with Britain as a member and the United States as a backer. It collapsed in 1979 when Iran's revolution took Tehran out. A regional bloc built round an outside power proved as durable as its weakest member's government.

Consensus view: Riyadh's own account, carried by Shafaq News, presents the visit as support for mediation by Qatar and Pakistan, which casts Khalid bin Salman as a messenger for talks that run elsewhere. Sending a defence minister, an army chief and an intelligence chief fits talks about avoiding clashes between forces, the work of soldiers, more than a political settlement.

Counter-view: Tehran's reading, through Rezaei's line to IRNA that "West Asia's security must be based on the countries of the region", treats the same meeting as the start of a regional order that leaves out outside powers. That line appears in no joint text, so it is Iran's claim on the meeting, not the meeting's own conclusion.

Key tension: Whether the pact states came to Tehran as partners in a regional security channel or as couriers for Doha and Islamabad.

First Reported In

Update #183 · Iran threatens legal action on Sinokor ships

Arab News Pakistan· 29 Oct 2026

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Causes and effects

Caused by

Saudis, Turks and Pakistanis invoke pact

The Tehran guests represent the three states that invoked the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement on 5 October.

Occurred 5 Oct 2026

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Lavrov and Munir visit Tehran in 2 days

Munir returned to Tehran six days after Pezeshkian told him sanctions must be lifted before talks.

Occurred 20 Oct 2026

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This Event

Rezaei hosts Mecca pact chiefs in Tehran

The three states bound by the Mecca defence pact sat down with Iran's security chief, and Tehran and Riyadh gave rival accounts of the purpose.

Different Perspectives

United States (Joint Maritime Information Center)

The JMIC, the US-led naval reporting cell, rated the Hormuz threat "severe" in its 25 October advisory, as reported by gCaptain, and warned of possible renewed mining. Eight days earlier it found no substantiation for the Guards' mine claims, while US-facilitated transits ran at about 34 a day.

United Kingdom (CPS and Counter Terrorism Policing)

The CPS charged two men under the National Security Act 2023 over the RAF Fairford incident, and Counter Terrorism Policing said it believes the foreign intelligence service involved is Iran's, LBC reported. The case now runs through the courts; both men are charged, not convicted.

Aden and Yemen's recognised government

The Houthis told people to leave Aden airport, in the government-held south, before a missile fell there on 28 October, AFP reported, and police reported a second attack that afternoon. The fight between Riyadh and the Houthis is landing on the south's main civilian airport.

Qatar (mediators)

Qatar-led mediators put new terms to Iran this week, which an Iranian official called "ideas, not a proposal". Riyadh framed the Tehran meeting as support for Qatari and Pakistani mediation, keeping Doha at the centre of the indirect channel.

Korea Shipowners' Association

The association said the ships Iran listed were sub-chartered to an overseas oil company, not owned by Sinokor, carried no South Korean crew, and that Sinokor was unaware of the warning. South Korea's shipowners are contesting whose vessels the notice covers before it takes effect.

Kuwait (foreign ministry)

Kuwait summoned Iran's ambassador, Mohammad Toutounji, and handed him a protest note over the embassy's denial that its citizen took part in the alleged plot against Interior Minister Fahad Al-Yousef. Kuwait is answering through its courts and a diplomatic protest, citing international law and the UN Charter.

Written with AI from Lowdown's published reporting. Not individually reviewed by an editor. Editorial standards.