Tehran official says Saudi security depends on policy changes, not alliances

TEHRAN: Iranian parliament member Ebrahim Rezaei has said Saudi Arabia’s new defence agreement with Pakistan and Turkiye does not guarantee the kingdom’s security.

In a statement shared on social media, Rezaei, a member of Iran’s Parliament National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, said Riyadh should understand that the agreement would not provide the level of protection it had failed to achieve despite decades of reliance on the United States.

He said Saudi Arabia should reconsider its policies so that it would not have to seek security guarantees from other countries.

The remarks came after Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkiye signed the Makkah Defence Joint Agreement, under which an armed attack against any one of the three countries would be considered an attack against all three.

The trilateral defence pact was signed during a summit in Makkah attended by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

The agreement aims to strengthen collective defence capabilities and expand security cooperation among the three countries. The development comes amid heightened regional tensions and concerns over security threats in the Middle East.