ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan’s foreign minister said Sunday a new defense agreement his country signed with Saudi Arabia and Turkey was not directed against any country and remained open to other nations in the region.
The landmark Mecca Joint Defense Agreement was signed on Friday by the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif as the three countries seek to deepen security cooperation amid heightened tensions between the United States and Iran.
Pakistan's Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said Sunday the agreement was “purely defensive in nature” and that other countries could join if they were willing to uphold its principles and resolve differences through peaceful means, adding the deal reflected a shared desire to strengthen strategic security cooperation.
His post on X came a day after Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan similarly said the agreement was not aimed at Iran or any other country.
The agreement stipulates "that any armed attack against any one of the three states shall be regarded as an attack against them all,” according to statements released by the three sides. Dar said in his post the stipulation was consistent with the right of individual and collective self-defense under Article 51 of the U.N. Charter.
Pakistan, he said, would continue working with countries across the region toward lasting peace and stability.
“The Makkah Accord does not abrogate or replace any existing bilateral or multilateral agreements between these countries, or with other countries or organizations,” he wrote.
His comments followed overnight public celebrations of the agreement. Landmarks in Pakistan's capital, Islamabad and Saudi cities were illuminated in the colors of the Saudi, Turkish and Pakistani flags.
The three countries bring significant but differing capabilities to the arrangement. Pakistan has extensive military experience and is the Muslim world’s only nuclear-armed country; Saudi Arabia brings substantial economic resources and regional influence; and NATO member Turkey has a large military and an increasingly sophisticated domestic defense industry.
In Islamabad, defense analysts cautioned against viewing the agreement as the equivalent of NATO, despite its collective-defense provision. Abdullah Khan, an Islamabad-based defense analyst, said that although the agreement was signed during a period of heightened regional tensions, it should not be interpreted as being directed against Iran or another country.
Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have maintained close military ties for decades and signed a separate mutual-defense agreement in September 2025. Pakistan and Turkey also have expanded military and defense-industrial cooperation in recent years
FILE - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, right, and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman shake hands during a welcome ceremony, in Ankara, Turkey, Wednesday, June 22, 2022. (AP Photo/Burhan Ozbilici, File)
FILE - This handout photograph released by the state-run Saudi Press Agency shows Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, left, embracing Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman after signing a joint defense pact in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2025. (Saudi Press Agency via AP, file)
People watch fireworks in Lahore, Pakistan, Saturday, Aug. 8, 2026, during celebrations of the signing a trilateral defense agreement between Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkey in Mecca. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary)
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia and Ukraine exchanged strikes overnight that killed civilians and injured many others on both sides, local authorities reported.
Large-scale Russian missile strikes on Ukrainian cities have become almost routine in recent weeks, with Moscow exploiting Ukraine’s critical shortage of interceptors for the U.S.-made Patriot systems — the sole air defense weapon in its arsenal able to shoot down ballistic missiles.
In the latest attacks, Ukrainian drones killed five people and injured two dozen others, including a 4-year-old boy, in Russia’s border region of Belgorod, according to the regional administration.
In Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, Russian missiles struck a high-rise apartment block in the Saltivskyi district, killing two people and injuring 13, according to regional head Oleh Syniehubov. Eight more people were injured in Ukraine's Black Sea port of Odesa after “dozens of missiles and drones” struck the city and surrounding region, according to local administration head Oleh Kiper.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has for months lobbied other countries, especially the U.S., to send Ukraine more Patriot systems made scarcer by the Iran war, arguing they are crucial for defending civilians.
Failing that, Zelenskyy wants to make Patriot ammunition in Ukraine or get approval from Elon Musk to use his Starlink satellite communications system to guide strikes inside Russia that can hit its missile launchers.
Meanwhile, Kyiv has kept up long-range drone strikes against Russian energy infrastructure, as well as the country’s largest online retailer, Wildberries, and other targets deep inside Russia, sparking a fuel crisis.
Russia’s defense ministry on Sunday claimed its overnight strikes hit drone warehouses in the Kharkiv region, as well as fuel depots and stores of other materiel belonging to Ukraine’s armed forces at the port of Odesa.
It said its forces had shot down 153 Ukrainian drones during the night, including over Russian-occupied Crimea and the Black and Azov seas.
In Russia's Belgorod region, authorities said Ukrainian drone strikes damaged 29 apartment blocks and five private houses, as well as administrative buildings and unspecified “commercial facilities.”
Debris from Ukrainian drones also fell on two enterprises and a private home in the Russian city of Novorossiysk, mayor Andrey Kravchenko said on Sunday. He did not specify what the commercial sites were. Regional authorities later said falling debris had injured one person, damaged two private houses, and blew out a window in an apartment block.
A major fuel terminal is located at Novorossiysk that links Kazakhstan's oil fields to markets around the world, and which has previously been a target for Ukrainian strikes.
A “powerful explosion” believed to be from a combat drone was reported in the village of Crocmaz, in southeast Moldova near the border with Ukraine, local police said Sunday.
No one was injured by the impact, which caused a vegetation fire in the Stefan Voda district, police said, adding that “fragments of a combat drone were found at the scene” and would be examined by specialists. Police did not specify the origin of the drone.
Multiple drones have violated Moldovan airspace since Russia launched its full-scale war in neighboring Ukraine.
Bulgaria has summoned Ukraine's ambassador after a drone entered Bulgarian airspace, the country's public broadcaster BNT reported on Sunday.
The drone exploded on Saturday close to an international gas pipeline shortly after crossing the border from Romania. No casualties or damage were reported.
Bulgaria's defense ministry said the drone appeared to be the type used by Ukrainian armed forces, and that the incident was likely accidental.
Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Heorhii Tykhyi said the incident was being examined, but that it did not deliberately target Bulgaria. Ukraine and Bulgaria were in “close contact” to clarify what had happened, he added.
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AP writer Stephen McGrath contributed from Leamington Spa, England.
Rescuers evacuate an injured civilian after a residential building was hit following Russia's drone attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Sunday, Aug. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrii Marienko)
Rescuers evacuate an injured civilian after a residential building was hit following Russia's drone attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Sunday, Aug. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrii Marienko)
Firefighters put out a fire after a residential building was hit following Russia's drone attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Sunday, Aug. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrii Marienko)
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, emergency services personnel work to extinguish a fire of residential buildings following a Russian missiles attack in Odesa, Ukraine, Sunday, Aug. 9, 2026. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, emergency services personnel work to extinguish a fire of residential buildings following a Russian missiles attack in Odesa, Ukraine, Sunday, Aug. 9, 2026. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, emergency services personnel work to extinguish a fire of residential buildings following a Russian missiles attack in Odesa, Ukraine, Sunday, Aug. 9, 2026. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)
