Iran hosts Saudi Arabia and regional powers as fears grow of return to war

Iran hosts Saudi Arabia and regional powers as fears grow of return to war

CNN-Oct26th2026

ByMostafa Salem

Saudi Arabia and its allies dispatched top security officials to Iran for talks on Monday amid fears of a fresh US-Israeli offensive that could plunge the Middle East into further instability.

Pakistani military chief Asim Munir and Turkish intelligence chief Ibrahim Kalin joined Saudi Arabia’s defense minister, Prince Khalid bin Salman, in Tehran for meetings with Iran’s top officials, including national security chief Mohsen Rezaei and President Masoud Pezeshkian.

The meeting in Tehran comes at a tense moment in the Middle East as speculation grows that President Donald Trump could order new strikes on Iran after next week’s midterm elections. It also marks the first high-level contact between Iran and Saudi Arabia since Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis escalated attacks against Saudi targets last month.

A statement released by Iranian state media said the four countries agreed to continue dialogue and bolster cooperation to support security and peace in the region.

“We have consistently emphasized that regional security can only be ensured by relying on the will and security considerations of the countries of the region,” Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Esmaeil Baghaei, told reporters ahead of the meeting.

Saudi, Turkey and Pakistan represent the Mecca Alliance, a newly formed coalition of three of the region’s largest powers. The pact, under which an attack on one is deemed an attack against all, has drawn scrutiny for uniting nuclear-armed Pakistan, Turkey’s military strength and Saudi Arabia’s financial resources.

Pakistan has been a key intermediary between Washington and Tehran since the war started in February.

“The significance of the meeting lies primarily in its timing and the officials involved,” Hamidreza Azizi, a senior Iran analyst at the International Crisis Group (ICG) think tank, told CNN. “It comes at a moment when the risk of another round of war between Iran and the United States is growing, and the three members of the Mecca Pact have direct security interests at stake.”

The visit by Khalid bin Salman — a Saudi royal and brother of the kingdom’s de facto leader Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman — surprised observers. Iran and Saudi Arabia represent competing religious ideologies and have been locked in a regional rivalry for decades, culminating in an outright confrontation earlier this year after the US and Israel launched a war on the Islamic Republic.