Mideast outreach

As Dawn reports, Pakistan has signed the Makkah Joint Defence Agreement with Saudi Arabia and Turkiye, and is now reassuring Iran the pact poses no threat. Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar called his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi to stress the agreement is not an instrument of confrontation, while Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif told the cabinet it's entirely for defence purposes. The agreement includes a mutual defence clause—an attack on one signatory is considered an attack on all. Iran's foreign ministry spokesman responded positively, saying his country sees no reason to believe the alliance aims at encirclement, and noted it shows regional states cannot depend solely on American security guarantees.

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