29OCT

Sharif, Munir and Dar land in Jeddah

3 min read

17:49UTC

Pakistan's prime minister, army chief and foreign minister arrived in Jeddah on 6 August, with Erdogan following a day later, ahead of a trilateral defence text nobody outside the room has read.

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Key takeaway

Three delegations, one city, and a defence text nobody outside the room has read.

Pakistan's prime minister Shehbaz Sharif, army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir and foreign minister Ishaq Dar landed in Jeddah on Thursday 6 August, received by Prince Saud bin Mishaal, deputy governor of the Makkah region. The arrival account comes from the SPA (Saudi Press Agency), The Kingdom's state wire, relayed by Saudi Gazette, and Pakistan's Prime Minister's Office issued a statement saying the same⁠¹⁠². Sharif and Munir performed Umrah, the lesser pilgrimage undertaken outside the Hajj season, alongside defence minister Khawaja Asif and special assistant Tariq Fatemi. Recep Tayyip Erdogan travelled to the city on Friday 7 August to join Sharif and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman⁠³.

A trilateral Pakistan, Turkiye and Saudi defence instrument is expected to be signed on Saturday 8 August, covering joint military exercises, technology transfer, defence-industrial production and intelligence sharing⁠⁴. No signature has been reported. As of Friday the verifiable position amounts to three delegations in one city and a text nobody outside them has seen.

Nothing about the underlying obligation began this week, and the arrivals should not be read as an alignment forming from nothing. Ishaq Dar told Pakistan's parliament on Saturday 7 March that Islamabad had reminded Tehran of the Saudi-Pakistan mutual defence pact, under which an attack on one signatory counts as an attack on both. Pakistan Air Force F-16s were reinforcing Saudi airspace by mid-April. Dar carried that message in March and stands in the Jeddah delegation now negotiating its expansion.

Two things have changed. Turkiye sat outside the arrangement before, and a mutual defence clause is reportedly being widened into an industrial programme. That second difference outlasts the war. A defence clause binds a signatory during a crisis and lapses into paper once the crisis passes. Joint production lines, transferred technology and standing exercise cycles build capability that survives the emergency which justified it, and they commit procurement budgets for a decade.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

Pakistan's prime minister, army chief and foreign minister flew to the Saudi city of Jeddah on 6 August, with Turkey's president due to join them the next day, ahead of a defence agreement the three countries have not yet signed. Pakistan and Saudi Arabia already have a mutual defence pact, and Pakistan sent fighter jets to help defend Saudi airspace earlier in the war. This visit would add Turkey to that relationship for the first time.

What could happen next?

Precedent
A signed trilateral instrument would extend the Saudi-Pakistan defence relationship to include Turkey as a formal party for the first time this war.

Source Landscape

This story draws on mixed-leaning sources from United States, Saudi Arabia and 1 more

Saudi Arabia×2

United States

France

LeftRight

Primary parallel: Pakistan already invoked its mutual defence pact with Saudi Arabia in March, when Ishaq Dar told Pakistan's parliament Islamabad had reminded Tehran of the arrangement, and followed that in April by sending F-16s to reinforce Saudi airspace. The Jeddah visit extends a relationship already active in both diplomatic and military terms.

Counter-parallel: Turkey's addition has no equivalent recent precedent in this war; Ankara has not previously deployed forces or issued a comparable defence commitment to Saudi Arabia during the conflict, so its role in any signed instrument would be genuinely new rather than a formalisation of existing practice.

Consensus view: Adding Turkey to a Saudi-Pakistan defence arrangement that already produced Pakistani F-16 deployments to Saudi airspace in April and a public invocation of the mutual defence pact in March turns a bilateral wartime arrangement into a three-country instrument, changing who else Riyadh could call on if the campaign Saudi officials warned of the same day materialises.

Counter-view: An unsigned instrument commits nobody. Sharif, Munir and Dar arriving a day before Erdogan, rather than alongside him, suggests Pakistan and Turkey may be negotiating separate bilateral terms with Riyadh rather than arriving as a unified bloc.

Key tension: Whether the instrument formalises military commitments already made informally in April, or adds new obligations neither Pakistan nor Turkey has previously accepted toward Saudi Arabia.

Sources:CNN·Saudi Gazette·Euronews

Mentions:Shehbaz Sharif →Asim Munir →Ishaq Dar →Recep Tayyip Erdogan →Mohammed bin Salman →Saudi Arabia →Turkey →Pakistan →Khawaja Asif →Jeddah →Riyadh →Saudi Press Agency →Ankara →Tehran →F-16 →Islamabad →

First Reported In

Update #167 · Riyadh names its next targets; Najran is hit

CNN· 7 Aug 2026

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Causes and effects

Caused by

Pakistani F-16s reinforce Saudi airspace mid-war

The Jeddah delegation deepens the airspace-integration commitment Pakistan supplied in April into a wider trilateral instrument.

Occurred 15 Apr 2026

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Pakistan invokes Saudi-Iran defence pact

Dar, who told Pakistan's parliament in March that Islamabad had reminded Tehran of the mutual defence pact, is in the Jeddah delegation now negotiating its expansion.

Occurred 7 Mar 2026

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This Event

Sharif, Munir and Dar land in Jeddah

A mutual defence clause obliges a signatory during a crisis; joint production lines and transferred technology outlast it.

Led to

Le Monde reports a Mecca defence pact

The reported Mecca signing followed the prior Jeddah arrivals of Pakistani and Turkish leaders.

Occurred 6 Aug 2026

Read story →

Different Perspectives

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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.