Turkey has assured Iran that the Mecca joint defense pact signed with Saudi Arabia and Pakistan was not designed to target Tehran. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan made the statement on Saturday after Tehran expressed dissatisfaction with the agreement. He said Iran, or any other country, was not identified in the pact as a common threat.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif signed the agreement on Friday. The pact states that an armed attack on any one of the three countries will be regarded as an attack on all of them. Fidan told Anadolu that no common threat had been specified in writing, and that countries not attacking the signatories would not be considered targets.

Fidan described the agreement as technically similar to NATO’s Article 5 collective-defense provision, under which an attack on one member is treated as an attack on all. Despite Ankara’s assurances, some Iranian officials questioned the pact and warned Saudi Arabia against relying on new security partners. Iranian parliamentary commission member Mahmoud Nabavian said cooperation with Turkey and Pakistan would not ensure Saudi security, while commission member Ebrahim Rezaei called it a paper agreement.