Syria weighing whether to join Makkah defence pact, foreign minister says at Manama Dialogue
Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani told the Manama Dialogue on Saturday that Damascus is evaluating entry into the Makkah defence pact binding Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkiye, with no formal application yet announced.
Syria is considering whether to join the Makkah defence pact that binds Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkiye, Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani said on Saturday, in the clearest public signal yet that the alliance could grow beyond its three founding members.
Speaking at the Manama Dialogue security conference in Bahrain, al-Shaibani said discussions were under way to evaluate Syria's entry into the alliance. His words were reported by the Syrian Arab News Agency and carried by Al Jazeera, Dawn, Geo News and other outlets covering the conference.
"Discussions are currently underway to evaluate Syria's entry into the Makkah alliance," al-Shaibani told the gathering, according to those reports. He gave no date for a decision and said no formal application had been announced, leaving the process at the stage of internal evaluation rather than a concluded deal.
The Makkah Joint Defence Agreement was signed on 7 August in the Saudi city of Makkah by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. Its central commitment is that an armed attack on any one member is to be considered an attack on all of them, a formula that has led commentators to describe it as a NATO-style arrangement for its members.
For Syria, the question carries particular weight because of the country's recent history. The government in Damascus took power after the fall of the Assad regime in December 2024 and has since been rebuilding its armed forces and diplomatic relationships. Al-Shaibani said more than 3.7 million Syrians had returned home since that change, a figure he linked to the government's wider effort to restore stability.
At the Manama Dialogue, the foreign minister described Damascus as an "integral" part of regional security and said Syria would support any framework aimed at safeguarding stability. He also said the region was in greater need than ever of joint deterrence and defence systems, a theme that ran through much of the conference as Gulf states discussed the war involving Iran and attacks on their territory.
Al-Shaibani also used the session to express Damascus's support for Gulf states against aggression and to condemn missile and drone attacks on them, according to the Syrian news agency's account. He separately denounced repeated Israeli attacks on Syrian territory, a long-running grievance for Damascus that predates the current government.
The Syria discussion follows a similar exchange only a day earlier about another possible entrant. Asked on Friday whether Iran could join the agreement, Pakistan's military spokesman said the pact's wording did not prevent new members from joining, and the site reported that the pact was open to any country sharing its vision, including Iran. Al-Shaibani's remarks on Saturday show that Syria, rather than Iran, is the country now publicly examining membership.
Turkish officials have also signalled openness to expansion. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan has said the agreement is open to other countries, and Turkiye's parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee recently approved a bill to ratify the pact, one of the domestic steps needed before the agreement is fully embedded in each member's law.
What happens next will depend on the evaluation al-Shaibani described. Syria would need to settle what obligations it could take on, how its rebuilt military would fit into joint planning, and whether membership would change its relationships with neighbours that are not part of the pact. None of those questions was answered in his brief remarks, and no timetable was offered.
The possibilities now range from a formal Syrian application in the coming months to a longer period of consultation that ends without membership. Either way, the fact that the question is being discussed openly at a major regional security conference marks a shift: an alliance signed only in August is already being treated as a framework other states in the region may join, rather than a closed arrangement between three capitals.
