SYRIA CONSIDERS JOINING MECCA DEFENCE PACT

Syria's Foreign Minister, Asaad al-Shaibani, said on Saturday that Damascus is discussing whether to join the Mecca defence pact linking Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan. He spoke during a session on regional security at the Manama Dialogue conference in Bahrain. "Discussions are currently underway to evaluate Syria's entry into the Mecca alliance," he said. Under the pact, signed in Mecca in August, an attack on one member is treated as an attack on all three.

Saudi Arabia has faced escalating attacks from Yemen's Houthi movement, including a strike this month that shut Riyadh's airport for two weeks. The Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen said on Friday it had intercepted Houthi drones over the Mecca and Medina regions, a claim the Houthis denied. French President Emmanuel Macron visited Riyadh earlier this month and said France had sent troops to protect a Saudi oil terminal from Houthi attacks. Britain announced in October that it would deploy fighter jets to help Saudi Arabia counter the attacks.

Shaibani also addressed Syria's conflict with Israel at the conference. "Our territory has been subjected to more than 1,000 Israeli attacks in less than two years, killing dozens," he said. He questioned how calls for border control and placing weapons exclusively under state control could be justified while Syrian sovereignty was "violated and targeted on a daily basis." He called for a return to the pre-8 December 2024 lines and implementation of the 1974 Disengagement Agreement, saying the Golan Heights is Syrian territory under UN Security Council Resolution 497. Israel has occupied the Syrian buffer zone under that agreement since the Assad government fell on 8 December 2024, a move the UN has called a violation.