Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey signed a mutual defense alliance on Friday. The agreement’s text is not yet public, but Pakistan specified that it means “any armed attack against any one of the three states shall be regarded as an attack against them all.” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said the alliance gives the countries a tool for “combating terrorism,” however that is defined.

The elephant in the room is Iran. Saudi Arabia already has a mutual defense treaty with Pakistan, an agreement Pakistan reportedly almost invoked against Iran in March or April. Pakistan has also signed a similar but separate deal with Kuwait. Both Saudi Arabia and Kuwait have been attacked by Iran extensively since March for cooperating with the United States.

• Pakistan has nuclear weapons. Turkey has joint control over American nuclear weapons on its soil. Saudi Arabia is pushing for its own nuclear capability.
• Turkey is on Iran’s western border. Pakistan is on Iran’s eastern border. Saudi Arabia lies across the Persian Gulf from Iran.

The Mecca agreement could result in a nuclear-armed alliance surrounding Iran. This is especially intriguing when analyzed alongside Bible prophecy.

• Psalm 83 is a prophecy of Middle Eastern countries, including “Edom” and “the Ishmaelites” (verse 6), the ancestors of the modern Turkish and Arab peoples, forming a grand alliance under the sponsorship of Assyria (verse 8), or modern-day Germany.
• A related prophecy in Daniel 11:40-43 reveals that Germany forms its alliances in part to war against Iran. Verse 40 specifies this alliance would surround Iran, the end-time “king of the south,” “like a whirlwind.”
• Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry elaborates on these prophecies in his free booklet The King of the South. He speculates in the book that this attack could include nuclear weapons.

Thus far, Germany does not appear to be part of this mutual defense alliance. Pakistan also isn’t mentioned in Psalm 83; its role in these events remains an open question. But given the circumstances, such a momentous alliance as the one agreed to in Mecca may be the formal start of what will become the Psalm 83 alliance.