Additional Arab countries could join the Mutual Defense Pact that was signed by Saudi Arabia and Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Asif has said. The “doors are not closed” for such developments, he is quoted as saying by PTI press service.
On Sept. 17 Pakistan and Saudi Arabia signed a “strategic mutual defense” pact that declares that any attack on either country will be considered “an aggression against both.” Pakistan possesses nuclear weapons, suggesting that Saudi Arabia is now under a Pakistani nuclear umbrella. Bringing Pakistan’s nuclear deterrent into Southwest Asia means that Israel is not the only nuclear-armed state in the region.
In an interview with GEO News Live televised news program Asif said, “It is too early to speak of other countries joining the agreement, the door has not been closed.” He added, “If either Pakistan or Saudi Arabia is attacked from anywhere, it will be considered an attack on both nations, and we will respond together.”
Asif asserted that he had always supported the idea of a NATO-like alliance among Islamic states. “I think it is a fundamental right of the countries and people here, particularly the Muslim population, to together defend their region, countries and nations,” Asif said. He added that there was no clause in the deal that ruled out the entry of any other nation or that Pakistan could not sign a similar agreement with anyone else.
