Muslim Nato Activated: Pakistan & Turkey Back Saudi Arabia
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit maajidnawaz.substack.comThis Radical Dispatch Newszine - below - is provided free for all subscribers.At the top of this post, Resistance Radio presents our WARRIOR CREED video/audio podcast from , with a transcript provided - Middle East Defence Pact Activated: Pakistan & Turkey Back Saudi Arabia.This podcast can be set to either audiovisual, or just audio, and is for premium members of Radical Media only. To listen, basic members should upgrade to the premium service here:Read on now for our free Radical Dispatch.Muslim Nato Activated: Pakistan & Turkey Back Saudi Arabia- A Radical Dispatch1) Saudi Launches Yemen Counter-OffensiveThe internationally recognised beleaguered government of Yemen, alongside the Saudis have launched a counter-offensive against the Iran-backed Houthi militia in Yemen, who last month overran a critical shipping chokepoint that leads into the Suez canal, known as the Bab al-Mandeb strait. The Times reports 5th October 2026:“Yemen’s government forces, backed by Saudi airstrikes, closed on the strategic Bab al-Mandeb Strait after launching an offensive against the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels who control the Red Sea waterway. The Saudi-led coalition said the operation began with at least 100 airstrikes, which provided cover for the Yemeni government troops as they attempted to reverse a Houthi advance last month that put them in control of the strait…Rashad al-Alimi, the head of the internationally recognised government of Yemen, announced the operation to retake the country in a statement issued from Saudi Arabia as Saudi fighter jets struck Houthi positions with American and British logistical support.” Somewhat alarmingly, the Houthis fought back and captured the head of the Yemen government’s home. The Times reports 5th October 2026:“Hours later the Houthis captured his home in the region of Taiz. In a video several rebels lined up outside Alimi’s house to chant their slogan: ‘God is the greatest, death to America, death to Israel, a curse on the Jews and victory to Islam’.’’With the Iranian theocracy already choking a critical exit route for Saudi oil via the Strait of Hormuz to the north of the Arabian Peninsula, the Houthi seizure of the Bab al-Mandeb route had threatened to close the Red Sea and international access to the Suez canal, sending global energy costs skyrocketing. The strategic significance of this conflict is gleaned from the map below.The Times reports 22nd September 2026:The Saudis had repeatedly requested international help, only to receive largely symbolic refuelling air support from Britain under the new PM Andy Burnham. The Times reports 22nd September 2026:“Andy Burnham has agreed to provide British military support for Saudi Arabia as it counters attacks by Houthi fighters. In his first major foreign policy intervention, the prime minister said RAF planes would support “defensive” air-to-air refuelling for Saudi strikes.”Trump has so far consistently refused to get drawn into the region any further, and remains focused instead on settling the route of the conflict, with Iran. The Times reports 5th October 2026:“The US has ruled out direct intervention in Yemen, but sources say it is actively assisting Saudi Arabia with targeting intelligence and helping refuel its jets as they conduct air strikes on the Houthis. Britain also announced it would assist in refuelling Saudi jets and France pledged to send aerial defences to the kingdom….A resolution in Yemen is unlikely without a wider deal between the US and Iran, but the US, which is enforcing its own naval blockade of Iran, wants to pressure the Iranian regime into making concessions.”This relative global inaction led to the Ansarallah Houthis escalating their attacks on Saudi Arabian infrastructure. Reports indicated that even Islam’s holiest sites in Mecca and Medina were being targeted by the Houthis, which they subsequently denied. The Times reports 22nd September 2026:“Last week Saudi Arabia issued brief alerts over possible attacks on the holy city of Mecca and in the Jeddah and Taif governorates, after the kingdom was repeatedly targeted by the Houthis in recent days. The alerts, including the first issued in Mecca since the Middle East war began, were quickly lifted, according to the Saudi civil defence. They came a day after a series of ballistic missile and drone attacks launched from Yemen, which injured 13 people in the kingdom’s south.”The Saudis desperately needed wider help. 2) Mecca Defence Pact ActivatedAfter reports of attacks on Mecca and Medina, the joint Mecca Defence Alliance was activated. The Middle East’s two strongest military powers Pakistan and Turkey then entered the chat. Al-Jazeera reported on this development here. Click to play:“…to send troops to Saudi Arabia for its defence. Military chiefs along with defence and foreign ministers from Pakistan, Turkiye and Saudi Arabia held an emergency meeting in Riyadh under the defence pact. Amid escalation by the Ansarallah Houthis and a counter offensive by government forces in Yemen. The critical diplomatic meeting underscored the urgency of a united response by some of the region’s most powerful militaries.‘On the Yemen issue we discussed in all its dimensions what kind of support could be given to Saudi Arabia and what could be done for the resolution of the problem through peaceful means’.The disruption in Bab al-Mandeb Strait after the Strait of Hormuz and increasing attacks on energy infrastructure have changed the region. A new regional security architecture involving Turkey and Pakistan is emerging, tied more directly to the security of Saudi Arabia. The Saudi Defence Minister says, ‘The emergency meeting of the strategic political and defence committee under the Mecca alliance for defence, reaffirmed the solidarity and unity of our countries in confronting the heinous attacks against the Kingdom and the holy sites. The committee agreed to activate collective deterrence measures within the framework of the Alliance, in response to the attacks and all those responsible for them’. On the ground, the balance remains in flux as Yemen’s war is entering a new, a potentially more dangerous phase. In recent weeks, Houthis made new gains along Yemen’s western coast, including Moha, and areas around Bab el-Mandeb. Government forces, backed by Saudi air power, are now pushing on multiple fronts to reverse those gains.The internationally recognised government says it has launched a major offensive to retake territory seized by the Houthis, including areas along the strategic Red Sea coast. Government forces say they have since retaken the port city of Moha and an airport near Dhabab. Positions close to the Bab al-Mandeb. They also say they have launched a strategic offensive towards Sana’a, the Houthi-held capital. The battlefield claims cannot be independently verified. Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council Chief Rashid Al-Alimi announced what he called a major military operation to retake Houthi-held territory. The Saudi-led military coalition announced its participation in the offensive targeting the Houthis. In a statement, the coalition’s spokesman reaffirmed around-the-clock air support for the Yemeni armed forces on the ground and confirmed that a hundred fighter jets participated today in Operation Dawn of Yemen. Pro-Houthi commentator Hussain al-Bukhaiti says Ansar Allah Houthis still have the upper hand in the conflict.‘They were launching attack against Israeli ships in the entire Red Sea, as well as in the entire Gulf of Aden, in the Arabian Sea, even near Sukatra Island. I mean, about more than a thousand kilometres away from the area that’s under the control of Yemeni armed forces here in Sana’a. So they don’t need to be by the sea to control the Bab el-Mandeb’.What began as a civil conflict has now pulled in regional powers, global shipping lanes and linkages to the Iran war. As the battle moves north to recapture coastal areas on the Red Sea and towards Sana’a, the question is whether this offensive can change the balance of a war that has already lasted more than a decade. Osama Mejaveed, Al-Jazeera.”What this means in practice is that Turkiye and Pakistan will now immediately deploy troops to Saudi Arabia. This leaves both Iran, and its proxy Houthi militia in Yemen, drastically outgunned. The strategic value of this mutual defence pact is clarified in the video below.Click to play:“Saudi Arabia just assembled a multinational army, Turkey, Pakistan, Egypt, and 11 more, to fight for the Bab al-Mandeb, one of the most critical waterways on the planet. Here’s why. The Strait of Hormuz had already been effectively shut down by the U.S.-Iran War, forcing Saudi Arabia to reroute its oil exports through Red Sea ports instead.Then on July 20th, Yemen’s Ansarullah, also known as the Houthi Movement, announced a naval blockade against Saudi shipping in that same Red Sea. Cutting off the one route Riyadh had left, within days a Saudi-linked tanker was hit. Brent crude surged past $100 a barrel, and Saudi Arabia struck back with airstrikes on healthy infrastructure at Hodeidah.Ten days later, Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Defense unveiled something it hadn’t built in years. A multinational maritime defense alliance, headquartered in Riyadh, tasked with protecting the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, the Red Sea, and the Gulf of Aden. Forty-three nations showed up to the founding meeting. Fourteen signed on immediately, including Turkey, Egypt, Pakistan, Jordan, Qatar, Bahrain, and Nigeria.The coalition calls itself purely defensive, aimed at no single country. But look at who stayed away. The UAE and Oman, the two Gulf states that actually sit on Hormuz, didn’t join, despite facing the same threat from Iran. And notice what this alliance doesn’t cover. Hormuz itself stays outside its mandate.Saudi Arabia is now defending two choke points in two different wars, and the US hasn’t joined this one yet. But everyone expects it will. Is this the start of a new Gulf military bloc, or just a stopgap?…”President Trump has welcomed this move. Click to play:Reporter: “Pakistan has agreed to send military forces to Saudi Arabia as part of the Mecca Alliance. There’s just been an attack on Saudi Arabia as well. What do you make of the deployment of Turkish and Pakistani forces?”President Trump: “Well, I think they want to help Saudi Arabia and I think that's good.”It is difficult to overstate the historic and strategic significance of this security development for the region. Click to play:Maajid Nawaz: “This is a huge and significant step for security in the Middle East and for global energy security. And it’s the first time really, the first time since World War I and the destruction of the Ottoman Caliphate in 1924, and meaning the destruction of the Ottoman Empire’s presence in the Middle East, that the security of the Middle East is going back to Sunni Muslim majority hands. Because since the destruction of the Ottomans, the security of the Middle East has in turn been both in the hands of the British through the British mandate and British colonial presence in the Middle East, and then the Israelis fighting with the Iranians over the regional security of the Middle East. And that proxy war, between the Israelis and the Iranians after the British pulled back has led us to this state today. And if you look at what’s known as the Shia Crescent, the Shia Islamist theocracy of Iran, with its terrorist militia Hezbollah in Lebanon, with its terrorist militia Hamas in Gaza, and with its Houthi militia in Yemen, this was the projection of power by the Shia Islamist theocracy of Iran to check what they believed was their rival power, and that was the Israeli security hegemony over the Middle East.So that competition between the Likudnik Zionists and the Shia Islamist theocrats in the Middle East was what was ruining the region. Of course, the invasion of Iraq under the neocons with Bush and Blair was all part of that equation. But finally, it’s beginning to stabilise again. And part of the stabilisation was, of course, the stabilisation of Syria under Ahmad al-Shara’a, backed by the Turks and the Saudis. And now the key part here is that that stabilisation needed regional guarantors to provide the security guarantees for the Middle East. It could no longer be Israel and it could no longer be Iran. Who were those regional guarantors to be?Well, the West was exhausted from intervening in the area. So the perfect solution was for the Sunni Muslim majority states, NATO member Turkey - and therefore responsible NATO ally - NATO’s second largest military, not about to do something stupid tomorrow, and of course, nuclear power Pakistan, which checks Israel’s own nuclear power in the region and suffocates Iranian demands for acquiring a nuclear weapon, because they will no longer have a claim to it if the Pakistani nuclear power is arbitrating in the region. And so that’s really the settlement that will bring peace and stability to the Middle East. It’s for the Israelis to step back into their borders, for the Iranian theocrats to step back into their borders, and for the rest of the chaos that’s been unleashed in the region to be secured by the Turks under a Pakistani nuclear umbrella.”3) Mecca Defence Pact Welcomed Globally Two months ago, Radical Media reported on Turkey joining the pre-existing defence pact between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. Radical Media reports 16th August 2026:Since its inception, President Trump and the Americans have been highly encouraging. Even the fiercely pro-Israel American ambassador to Tel Aviv, Mike Huckabee welcomed the move on 19th August 2026.Likewise, the UN has praised Pakistan’s role in stabilising the region. In this way, a third force has arrived to rebalance and stabilise the Middle East. That third force is the way forward. It is the Sunni Muslim majority idea of looking after their own region by themselves, of themselves and for themselves. This is the third way. And it is the future. Click to play:Maajid Nawaz: “This was not designed exclusively against the Israeli regional hegemony. It was designed as a balancing force against both Iranian theocratic regional hegemony and Likudnik Zionist regional hegemony. This was a third force coming in to rebalance and stabilise the region. That third force is the way forward. It’s the Sunni Muslim majority idea of looking after their own region by themselves, of themselves and for themselves. That’s the third way and that’s the future. And if you see, it isn’t just, again, the Americans and Mike Huckabee, the U.S. ambassador to Israel, that backed it, but even the U.N. here. We’re going to read for you from today, Al-Arabiya reports: United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres says, ‘Pakistan has acted as a crucial mediator between the United States and Iran and urges an end to the Middle East war’. So even the UN is backing this. I say even the UN because it doesn’t really matter apart from being the voice of the global opposition. What really matters is that Trump’s backing it, and that’s what’s been happening. Again, to assuage concerns on the Israeli side, just take a look at this map, because this is the real effect of the Middle Eastern NATO. As much as you’re hearing noise from inside Israel that this is a Muslim conspiracy against the Israelis, actually, what you see on your screens right now, in the form of a very simple map, cheekily done by us with an upside down red triangle. You’ll obviously get what that’s a reference to. But you can see here how the three points of that triangle, starting at the top there with Turkey, going all the way to Pakistan to the right, and then at the bottom to Saudi Arabia. What does that mutual Middle Eastern NATO do? Well, it’s evident here. It surrounds Iran.”The geostrategic impact of the new Mecca Defence pact is best depicted via this map, published in last August’s Radical Dispatch. 4) A Rebalanced Middle EastThe joint Mecca Defence Pact completely rebalances the Middle East, bringing together Sunni-Muslim leader of the Islamic world Saudi Arabia, also an economic powerhouse in the Middle East, with Nato’s second largest army under Sunni-Muslim Turkey, alongside the Islamic world’s only nuclear power, Sunni-Muslim Pakistan. The combined economic and military might of these three powers is outlined in the below video.Click to play:“…expected to sign a joint defence pact, that could reshape the region’s security map, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, together for the first time. Here’s what each brings to the table: this builds on the Saudi-Pakistan defence pact signed in September 2025, which said an attack on either country would be treated as an attack on both. The new agreement expands that foundation to include Turkey. Turkey brings military muscle, NATO’s second largest military, a serious domestic defence industry, and NATO-adjacent training and technology standards. Saudi Arabia brings money and geography. It is one of the world’s largest defence spenders, sits at the centre of the Gulf, and is hosting the talks, positioning itself as the anchor. Pakistan brings what the others do not, nuclear weapons. It is the only declared nuclear power in the Islamic world, and its army chief is in Saudi Arabia for the talks, showing how seriously Islamabad views this. Reports say the pact covers joint exercises, defence technology sharing, defence industry cooperation, and intelligence sharing. But the exact legal obligations are not public, so how binding it is remains unclear. The timing matters. The ongoing U.S.-Iran war, rising Houthi attacks, Turkey and Pakistan’s mediator roles, and Israel’s expected unease...”We explained this all here in more detail for last week’s WARRIOR CREED:Click to play:Maajid Nawaz: “Now, the combined military of these countries, that’s on your screens now. We’re just going to read it for you. This is Turkey and Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. And this is therefore the result of the Mecca Defence Pact. That means that this alliance now has access to the following: 170 nuclear warheads, that’s reported that Pakistan has. G20 membership via Saudi Arabia and Turkey. OPEC leadership, that’s the oil producing countries leadership via Saudi Arabia. NATO membership and one of NATO’s largest armies, that’s through Turkey. A total economic size of $3 trillion, that’s the combined economic size of the three countries put together. 1,000 fighter jets, that’s their combined fighter jets. The Pakistan and Turkish Air Forces are particularly strong. The Saudis are not really that good when it comes to military. A total of 2 million personnel in the Armed Forces. That’s a lot of ground forces there, 2 million in this day and age. That’s very significant. 7,000 tanks, 90,000 armoured vehicles between the three of them, 34 submarines between Turkey and Pakistan. That’s also very significant in this day and age. I mean, Britain doesn’t have access to 34 submarines. Part of the defence review that John Healy and the Labour Party have promised that isn’t going to take place now. 500 combat and naval platforms, that’s the combination of the three countries, a total surface area of 4 million square kilometres, and soon to have F-35 for Saudi Arabia and Turkey. You can see there from that summary, that brief reported summary, that the developments are incredibly significant.”Here is a list summarising the combined economic and military power that this alliance has just activated.
