Tehran, Iran – Ministers and senior security officials from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkiye – the three nations that signed the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement – are in Tehran to discuss regional security issues amid threats of new US attacks on Iran. Saudi Defense Minister Khalid bin Salman Al Saud, Pakistani military chief Asim Munir and Turkish intelligence chief Ibrahim Kalin have met with Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian and will discuss tensions with security chief Mohsen Rezaei. Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list The meetings are among the highest-profile talks held in Tehran in recent months. While there is still little information about what could be discussed, the meetings come amid a flurry of diplomatic activity to confront a new escalation between the United States and Iran. “The Mecca pact’s last-minute visit to Tehran is an attempt to tip the balance in favor of those willing to reach a deal before guns start firing again,” said Ali Vaez, deputy director of the International Crisis Group’s Middle East and North Africa Program. “But unless they come up with a credible formula to bridge the differences The talks are expected to address the waves of missile and drone attacks carried out by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, allies of Tehran, against Saudi Arabia, which supports Yemen’s internationally recognized government. “The offensive from Yemen,” Ayesha Siddiqa, a senior researcher at the Department of War Studies at King’s College London, told Al Jazeera. But despite the collective security agreement in the pact Mecca’s defense allies, Turkiye and Pakistan, cannot “afford to send troops on the ground” in Yemen, Siddiqa said. The latest diplomatic push is likely related to Pakistani army chief Asim Munir’s visits to Saudi Arabia and Iran last week, Siddiqa said, and coincides with Islamabad’s restrictions on land border trade with Tehran amid the US blockade of Iran. “security originating within the region” as they prepared for the meetings. Umer Karim, who researches Saudi foreign policy and its implications for regional security, said the Tehran meetings are unlikely to reduce the risk of a new war between Iran and the United States, which would likely lead to more regional unrest. “These talks are therefore perhaps more concerned with Saudi Arabia’s security and involve an attempt by Turkiye and Pakistan to force Iran to compromise,” he said. to Al Jazeera. Sanam Vakil, Chatham House’s Middle East and North Africa program director, said she was “cautiously optimistic” about the impact of the immediate meeting, but “less positive” about a lasting breakthrough. “Iran has strong incentives to avoid another major confrontation, and there may be room for limited understandings, particularly when it comes to Yemen,” she said. “However, the Houthis have their own calculations, and Iran’s influence over them is not absolute. Preventing further US-Israeli attacks will be even more difficult because fundamental disagreements between Tehran and Washington remain unresolved.” [Atta Kenare / AFP]US President Donald Trump is said to be considering new attacks to break the diplomatic deadlock with Iran, which has refused to accept any peace deal with Washington unless several of its demands are met. The United States and regional powers want shipping and international transit through the Strait of Hormuz to resume without impediments or attacks. Washington also wants to curb Tehran’s nuclear program and bring in international inspectors to evaluate Iran’s highly enriched uranium. Israel says it wants to overthrow the Islamic Republic. Tehran wants to lift the U.S. naval blockade of Iran’s southern ports, which has halted crude oil exports and disrupted most trade, and return to a memorandum of understanding agreed between the two countries in June. The United States has refused this, and President Trump says he is left with the option of “finishing the job” by launching major strikes against Iran’s civilian infrastructure. This could lead Iran to lash out at its neighbors, as it did earlier in the war with attacks on US bases and infrastructure in Arab states. Meanwhile, the US State Department issued an October 21 order for non-emergency US government employees and their family members to leave Saudi Arabia for security reasons, given the Houthi threat. minimize the impact on Saudi Arabia if war breaks out again. “However, given that little has changed since the Iranian strategic calculus and the actors involved do not have the kind of influence necessary to affect Iran’s strategic thinking, these negotiations are going to yield little,” Karim said.
