Saudi Arabia and its allies sent senior security officials to Iran for talks on Monday amid fears of new U.S. and Israeli attacks that could further destabilize the Middle East.
Pakistan’s military commander Asim Munir and Turkey’s intelligence chief Ibrahim Kalin joined Saudi Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman in Tehran and held talks with senior Iranian officials, including National Security Secretary Mohsen Rezaei and President Massoud Pezeshkian.
The Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the visit by Prince Khalid and representatives of the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement countries is part of ongoing efforts to reduce tensions between the parties to the current crisis, promote dialogue and a diplomatic solution, and support mediation efforts by Qatar and Pakistan.
The ministry said Saudi Arabia is seeking “active and practical engagement” from interested parties. He stressed the importance of opening channels of negotiations to prevent a return to military escalation in the region and pave the way for an agreement to end the crisis and achieve security and peace.
The meeting in Tehran comes at a tense time for the situation in the Middle East, amid growing speculation that President Donald Trump may order a new attack on Iran after next week’s midterm elections. It also marks the first high-level contact between Iran and Saudi Arabia since Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthis escalated attacks on Saudi targets last month.
According to a statement published by Iranian state media, the four countries agreed to continue dialogue and strengthen cooperation to support regional security and peace.
“We have consistently emphasized that regional security can only be ensured by relying on the will and security considerations of regional countries,” Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Esmail Baghai told reporters ahead of the meeting.
Saudi Arabia, Türkiye and Pakistan represent the Mecca Alliance, a newly formed coalition of the region’s three largest powers. The deal, which sees an attack on one as an attack on all, draws attention to its ability to unite the military power of nuclear-armed Pakistan, Turkey, and the financial power of Saudi Arabia.
Since the war began in February, Pakistan has become a key intermediary between Washington and Tehran.
“The importance of the talks lies primarily in the timing and the people involved,” Hamidreza Azizi, a senior Iran analyst at the International Crisis Group (ICG) think tank, told CNN. “It comes at a time when the risk of another war between Iran and the United States is increasing, and the three Mecca Accord member states have direct security interests.”
The visit by Khalid bin Salman, a member of the Saudi royal family and brother of Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, surprised observers. Iran and Saudi Arabia represent opposing religious ideologies and have been locked in a regional rivalry for decades, but came to an all-out showdown earlier this year after the United States and Israel launched a war against the Islamic Republic.
After Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei and many of his military leaders and top nuclear scientists were killed in an Israeli airstrike in February at the start of the US-Israel war against Iran, Iran attacked US regional allies, including Saudi Arabia. Iran’s allies and proxies, including Iraq and Yemen, have also attacked Saudi oil facilities and civilian infrastructure, putting unprecedented pressure on the kingdom.
Countries in the Middle East are concerned that another U.S. attack on Iran could prompt further Iranian retaliation after eight months of instability in the Middle East.
Two US officials told CNN that enough US troops are currently deployed in the region to carry out a potential attack. The scope of the new U.S. military operations is similar since President Trump halted full combat operations earlier this year, and is likely to go beyond efforts to simply “mow the lawn” or maintain the status quo with strikes that could quickly rebuild radars, launchers and other Iranian assets, the sources added.
After months of Iranian retaliatory missile and drone attacks on its U.S.-allied neighbor, Tehran has reduced the intensity of its attacks and instead focused its strategy on creating economic uncertainty by blocking the only waterway used by ships that transport one-fifth of the world’s oil and gas each day.
The Iranian government has called on countries in the region to remove U.S. military bases and end their dependence on the United States for defense. Most of Iran’s regional neighbors have sent armed forces from the United States, but they have gradually begun diversifying their arsenals and forming formal new military alliances amid concerns about the United States’ commitment to protect its allies.
The Mecca alliance is part of a “broader effort” to develop a more “independent regional security architecture,” Danny Sitrinowitz, former head of the Iranian branch of Israel’s military intelligence agency, wrote in X.
“The decision to engage directly with Tehran is equally important,” Citrinovic added. “This reflects not only the Iranian regime’s recognition, but also its understanding that Iran remains a central player in the region and its influence cannot simply be ignored.”
Iranian officials have welcomed the initiative, with some, including former Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, seeing it as an opportunity to move away from dependence on the United States toward a broader regional security framework. But these developments do not yet signal an immediate diplomatic breakthrough, said Crisis Group’s Azizi.
“The Iranian government wants credible assurances that any deal will prevent further military attacks, but it is difficult to see how Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan can provide such assurances or wield sufficient influence over President Trump to secure them,” he said.
“Unless these countries bring something new to the table that could change the calculus in Tehran or Washington, this meeting is unlikely to produce a substantive breakthrough,” Azizi added. “For now, this looks more like a last-ditch attempt to prevent a return to war than the start of a new diplomatic process.”
