With the US and Israel signalling possible attacks, and Iran promising to respond, top officials from the Mecca pact nations – Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkiye – have sat down with Iranian leaders in Tehran. It’s being viewed as the last chance to defuse tensions in the Gulf. Diplomacy has so far failed to secure a peace agreement between Iran and the US. So, with fighting in Yemen spilling over into Saudi Arabia, can the Mecca alliance work with Iran to help secure the region?

In this episode:

Hamid Reza Gholamzadeh, Director of DiploHouse, a Tehran-based think-tank
Khaled Batarfi, Saudi political analyst and academic
Joey Hood, former Acting Director for the Office of Iranian Affairs at the State Department

Host: Folly Bah Thibault

Connect with us:

@AJEPodcasts on X, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube

Will players in the Gulf establish a new...