Mecca Pact Talks in Tehran: Saudi, Pakistan, Turkey Meet Iran

Mecca Pact talks in Tehran brought Saudi Arabia’s defense minister, Pakistan’s army chief and Turkey’s intelligence chief to the Iranian capital on Monday, Oct. 26, 2026, for the first high-level meeting between Iran and all three members of the new defense alliance since Yemen’s Houthis escalated attacks on Saudi Arabia. Saudi officials said the goal is to de-escalate the Iran war and back mediation by Qatar and Pakistan.

The meeting came one day after Qatari mediators visited Tehran in coordination with Washington, and as a CNN report said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had pressed President Donald Trump for a joint strike on Iran before Israel’s election on Tuesday. Netanyahu’s office called that report “fake news.”

Who is at the Mecca Pact talks in Tehran

Saudi Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman is leading the kingdom’s delegation, joined by Pakistani army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir and Turkish intelligence chief Ibrahim Kalin, Saudi Deputy Minister for Public Diplomacy Rayed Krimly said on X. They were scheduled to meet Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council. Krimly said the visit is meant to support “de-escalation between parties involved in the ongoing crisis” and the mediation efforts carried out by Qatar and Pakistan.

Ali Bagheri Kani, deputy secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, said the participating countries could take “an effective step” toward regional security run by regional actors, according to Iranian state-run media !Unverified claim, Iranian state media (Iranian state media). Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said the agenda had not been set but named Israeli “expansionism,” Lebanon and what he called U.S. and Israeli aggression as the region’s most important threats, The Times of Israel reported.

What the Mecca defense pact is

Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan signed the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement in August. Under its terms, an armed attack on one member counts as an attack on all, and its first article commits the parties to use “all necessary means” against threats to one another’s territory and sovereignty, Al Jazeera reported. Pakistan approved the pact last week; Turkey’s parliament began ratification last week and has not finished. Earlier this month, the alliance’s ministers held an emergency meeting in Riyadh and agreed to ensure the “rapid deployment” of military forces and capabilities in Saudi Arabia.

That commitment matters because the Houthis, who are aligned with Iran, have turned Saudi Arabia into a pressure point in the wider war. Saudi Arabia said it intercepted another wave of missiles and drones on Sunday. Reuters reported Monday that about 86% of scheduled flights at Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport were cancelled between Oct. 8 and Oct. 25. We covered the escalation in our report on Houthi attacks on Saudi oil sites and airports.

Pakistan has been a central go-between for Washington and Tehran since the U.S. and Israel launched the war on Feb. 28. Earlier mediation helped produce an interim agreement in June, but it unraveled when fighting resumed weeks later. When Munir visited Tehran last week, Iranian officials told him there would be no talks with the United States until Tehran’s demands were met, according to Iranian media !Unverified claim, Iranian media (Iranian state media).

CNN: Netanyahu pushed for a pre-election strike

CNN reported, citing two U.S. officials and an Israeli security source, that Netanyahu had lobbied for a joint U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran before Tuesday’s Knesset vote and that Trump did not give a green light. U.S. officials asked Israel to wait and indicated joint operations could come soon, according to a source cited by CNN. The Israeli source said Israel’s military chief, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, had warned that an attack could force the election to be postponed. Netanyahu also denied a Channel 12 report that he and Zamir had clashed over an order for unspecified military action shortly before the vote.

On the U.S. side, Al Jazeera, citing The Hill, reported that Central Command has drawn up options for renewed strikes, with a focus on the period after the Nov. 3 midterms; those plans are not an order to attack. The Times of Israel, citing The New York Times, reported that two Iranian officials confirmed Tehran is preparing to target U.S. diplomats and personnel. Our earlier piece on signs of a possible Iran strike laid out the build-up.

What to watch after the Tehran meeting

Iran’s Foreign Ministry said Monday that the outcome of Israel’s election “makes no difference” to Tehran. The test for the Mecca Pact states is whether they can get Iran to restrain the Houthis and keep a channel open with Washington before any renewed strikes. Oil markets were already reacting to the diplomacy: Brent crude fell more than 6% on Monday morning, Euronews reported.

Sources

• Al Jazeera: Officials from Mecca pact states to hold talks in Iran
• Arab News: Saudi defense minister leads delegation to Makkah pact meeting with Iran
• The Times of Israel: Oct. 26 live blog, CNN report on Netanyahu and Iran strike
• Al Jazeera: CENTCOM reportedly has plans for Iran strikes

Additional sources

• AP News: High-level delegations meeting in Tehran to avert more war
• Euronews: Oil plunges more than 6% as diplomacy over Iran gathers pace