ANALYSIS | 🇸🇦🇵🇰🇹🇷🇪🇬 Back on October 5, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkey said they'd activated the Mecca…
Armed Conflict · · Saudi Arabia
ANALYSIS | 🇸🇦🇵🇰🇹🇷🇪🇬 Back on October 5, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkey said they'd activated the Mecca Pact and would carry out a "rapid deployment" of forces to the kingdom. It's been two weeks now.
Pakistan was already there. Riyadh confirmed Pakistani fighters and support aircraft at King Abdulaziz Air Base in april months before the pact was trigered. Islamabad still hasn't said how many people it has in the country, and Khawaja Asif says they're doing recon and support while the Saudis do the fighting.
Turkey is where it gets murky. Asif said Turkish forces were there too, but Ankara never confirmed it. Last week the Turkish MoD said parliament has to ratify the pact first, then approve sending troops abroad, and the size of the contribution gets decided after that. I haven't found a deployment motion going through parliament yet (happy to be corrected on this one). To be fair, Turkish technical teams and some air defence and EW kit have reportedly been in Saudi Arabia since last year, so the part that's missing is the new deployment under the pact.
Egypt isn't even in the pact. Sisi asked parliament to approve air defence and logistics support for Riyadh and the vote got pushed to October 26. One opposition party told its MPs to abstain because they weren't told the objectives, how long it would last or what it would cost.
Then today the UK, which isn't in the pact at all, approved Typhoon missions over Saudi Arabia.
I don't think this means the pact is empty. Turkey's delay looks more like legal procedure than cold feet, and most Egyptian MPs seem to be on board. But right now the only new fighter missions I can actually confirm are British.
Source: @GeoInsider
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