Middle East Forum

Major non-NATO ally status bestows privileges on countries that are not NATO members but are considered crucial allies. At present, the United States recognizes nearly two dozen such countries, ranging from Australia and New Zealand to Japan and South Korea. The status is not only a diplomatic honor but one that comes with real advantages.

Turkey has transferred far-reaching powers over wiretapping, internet access, communications infrastructure, online censorship and digital traffic from the country’s telecommunications regulator to the executive-controlled Cyber Security Presidency (Siber Güvenlik Başkanlığ), a sweeping restructuring that is designed to further empower President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and institutionalize censorship and digital surveillance under the guise of national security.

After Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Pakistan signed a mutual defense treaty in Mecca last week, a senior Israeli official sounded the alarm. “The agreement worries us,” the official told the Ynet news outlet. “It is a pact aimed at Israel.” “We wouldn’t be surprised if Egypt joins the Mecca Agreement,” continued the official, expressing worries that it could bring hostile forces to Israel’s doorstep.

The Pentagon has reportedly surveyed its own members for ideas about how to pursue the Iran war, as repeated Central Intelligence Agency leaks convince the Iranian regime they can outlast the United States. If leaks about weaponry shortages are true, the United States faces real obstacles. The past can be precedent, though.

At a July 2026 Christians United for Israel conference, Charles Asher Small, founding director of the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP), cited figures that ought to stop education officials cold: over $1 billion funneled into Texas A&M, another $1 billion into Georgetown, $10 billion to Cornell—all traced, he says, to a Qatari regime that bankrolls the Muslim Brotherhood, harbors Hamas leadership, and maintains warm ties with Iran and the Taliban.

On August 7, 2026, in Mecca, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif signed a trilateral mutual defense agreement declaring that an armed attack on any one of Turkey, Saudi Arabia, or Pakistan would be treated as an attack on all three.

Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Pakistan signed a mutual defense pact in Mecca on August 7. Commentators call it an Islamic NATO, but it is not. It is a message dressed as a military alliance. But messages invite answers, and this one hands Israel the strongest case in years for a rival security architecture running from India through the Gulf to the Eastern Mediterranean and out to Morocco. The signatories in Mecca supplied the pretext; Israel should supply the structure.

The wars in Ukraine and Iran may not have merged but they certainly overlap: Iran first supplied Russia with drones to strike at Ukraine. Russian factories upgraded and enhanced the drones, which killed hundreds of Ukrainians. Then, on July 25, 2026, Ukrainian drones struck two Russian ships transporting military goods across the Caspian Sea, as well as a Russian escort.

On August 7, 2026, Turkey joined the Saudi-Pakistan bilateral defense pact to form the Mecca Joint Deterrence Agreement. Aiming to synergize Turkey’s technological edge in drones, naval platforms, and jets with Pakistan’s military capacity and Saudi Arabia’s financial prowess, the trilateral pact invokes collective defense. Pakistan has nurtured defense ties with the Persian Gulf for decades.

President Donald Trump repeatedly relies on Pakistan to mediate disputes with Iran, but is Pakistan an honest broker in the Middle East? Or, does Pakistani mediation advance China’s interests over that of the United States? According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), China supplies more than 80 percent of Pakistan’s military equipment, underscoring Pakistan’s structural dependence on Beijing.