'Paper agreement won't bring security', Iran MP warns Saudi Arabia

Iran has warned Saudi Arabia against three nations pact. A member of Iran's Parliament and National Security and Foreign Policy Commission has criticised the new defence pact between Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey and said that even though the agreement has been signed, it would not guarantee Riyadh lasting security. Ebrahim Rezaei reacted to the defence agreement on X and wrote, "Saudis must know that a paper agreement with Turkey and Pakistan will not bring them security, just as years of one-sided nursing to the Americans did not bring them security." The hardline Kayhan newspaper criticized the new defense pact between Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan on Saturday, questioning whether Islamabad could continue to serve as a credible mediator between Iran and the United States. Kayhan editor Hossein Shariatmadari argued that Pakistan’s participation in the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement was incompatible with its mediation role.
The pact has also prompted debate inside Iran over its military significance. Hesameddin Ashena, an adviser in former president Hassan Rouhani’s administration, said the agreement could alter the regional rules of conflict by reducing the effectiveness of threats against Persian Gulf states and increasing the possibility that Turkey and Pakistan could become involved if Saudi Arabia were attacked.
Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkey signed a joint defence agreement in Mecca on Friday, wedding Sunni Muslim US allies alarmed at a regional conflagration that has brought Iranian missile fire onto Gulf oil exporters. Iran and its allies have been firing on Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states, and blockading their energy shipments, since the US and Israel attacked it on February 28 in a major escalation after years of regional ​tumult. The "Mecca Joint Defence Agreement" ‌is intended to strengthen collective deterrence against any act of aggression and stipulates that an armed attack against any of the three would be regarded as ⁠an attack on all, they said in a joint statement.
The three nations share concerns about the increasingly aggressive military stances of both Israel and revolutionary Shiite Iran, as th Turkey has NATO's second-largest military. Saudi Arabia is home to Islam's holiest sites and one of the world's top oil exporters, while Pakistan is the only nuclear-armed Muslim countryeir longtime US ally struggles to contain regional upheaval that has caused a global energy crisis.
The Middle East has been in flames for nearly three years since the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel, with nearly every country in the region experiencing cross-border attacks or missile or drone fire. Israel has waged war in Gaza, invaded southern Lebanon and seized territory in Syria as well as launching two air campaigns against Iran. Tehran has attacked US bases and civilian infrastructure in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Jordan and Israel.