#defense

#Defense / #war Secretary Pete #Hegseth said the U.S. military will continue to tactically engage #Iran ian-backed #Houthis until they stop acting aggressively against U.S. ships in the region. ~ March 2025.
Houthies took over the Red Sea coast of #Yemen and now fully controlling #bab_al_mandeb_strait ~Sept 2026.

Under the shadow of the widening 2026 Iran war, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan officially signed the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement into force on Friday, August 7, during an emergency trilateral summit in the city of Mecca.

Executed by Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, the treaty establishes a sweeping collective security alliance.

The pact enshrines a mutual defense clause modeled explicitly on NATO’s Article 5, establishing that an armed attack against any one of the three states will be treated as an attack against all.

Geopolitical strategists view the alliance as a massive shift in regional deterrence: Saudi Arabia will directly bankroll multi-billion dollar joint defense manufacturing, Turkey will supply state-of-the-art deep-tech defense equipment, and Pakistan will provide critical frontline military manpower to secure the vulnerable Gulf region alongside nuclear protection.