Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan have agreed to immediately implement their collective defence commitments, including the rapid deployment of agreed military forces and capabilities to Saudi Arabia.

The decision was reached on Monday during an emergency meeting of the Mecca Defence Alliance in Riyadh, according to a joint statement issued by Pakistan’s foreign ministry.

The three countries said the measures would be implemented under approved arrangements and in accordance with the national laws of each country.

Saudi Defence Minister Khalid bin Salman said the meeting reaffirmed the three countries’ “solidarity and unity” in responding to what he described as attacks against Saudi Arabia and Islamic holy sites.

The move follows a reported attack on a power distribution station in Medina. The Saudi-led coalition fighting Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi group said the attack targeted a facility supplying electricity to the Prophet’s Mosque, one of Islam’s holiest sites.

Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkey signed the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement in August. Under the pact, an armed attack against one of the three members is considered an attack against all.

The agreement initially provided few details on the specific military commitments or defence obligations of each country.

The latest announcement marks a move from the framework of the agreement towards its practical implementation, with the three countries now agreeing to put arrangements for the deployment of military capabilities into effect.

US President Donald Trump said on Sunday ​that lawyer and current Belarus envoy ‌John Coale, who has been credited with the release of hundreds of prisoners, ​would be his special presidential envoy ​for hostage affairs.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko pardoned ⁠15 prisoners last month after ​talks with Coale, who has been talking ​to Minsk for more than a year, Reuters reported.

“John has already secured the return of over 65 ​Americans and Allied Citizens from ​Belarus over the last year, and negotiated the ‌release ⁠of more than 800 political prisoners from multiple countries in Eastern Europe,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth ​Social.

Coale will ​replace ⁠Adam Boehler, who Trump said had brought back 196 hostages. ​Boehler, who in August helped ​to secure ⁠the release of a former American marine from Russia, will continue to ⁠assist ​in other matters as ​a senior adviser, Trump added.

Passengers on a flydubai flight reached Israel safely on Wednesday after customers and crew foiled a co-pilot’s attempt to crash the aircraft, Israeli officials said, in a struggle that began when he stabbed the pilot and sent the jet plunging ​nearly 14,000 feet in less than 30 seconds.

Passengers and crew entered the cockpit, overpowered the co-pilot and enabled a second pair of flydubai pilots who were aboard the flight to land the jet ‌safely in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia, Israeli officials said, Reuters reported.

More than 10 hours later, the passengers arrived at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport aboard a flydubai replacement aircraft, with several describing the episode as a miracle and recounting a frantic struggle to prevent a catastrophe.

Israeli officials said the attacker’s motive aboard flight FZ1073 from Dubai to Tel Aviv remained under investigation. Israel and the United Arab Emirates, which includes Dubai, signed the Abraham Accords normalizing relations in 2020.

The incident sharpened concerns about global aviation security in a region scarred by years of conflict, prompting ​Israel to tighten checks on pilots flying into the country.

“I just can say that it was a miracle. It was awful, crazy, and we thank God that we survived it, we didn’t think we will make ​it but thank God we are in Israel. We are back home. And we are happy to see everyone here,” passenger Lital Shachaf said.

Israel’s ambulance service said a 51-year-old ⁠man was taken to an Israeli hospital to be treated for injuries to his upper body. The man was in a “mild condition,” it said.

Describing the event as “a serious security incident,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saudi authorities would interrogate ​the co-pilot.

Flydubai said in a statement that the underlying reasons for the event remained unknown and warned against “premature speculation.” An Israeli official identified the co-pilot as an Omani national. There was no immediate comment from Oman.

Israeli officials applauded the passengers, ​who they credited with avoiding a much more serious disaster. Netanyahu said there were 174 people on board the flight from Dubai, most of them Israeli nationals.

US President Donald Trump said he spoke “at length” with Netanyahu on Wednesday about the incident. He proceeded to give reporters in the Oval Office a detailed account of what happened, adding: “This is the story that I heard — I don’t know if it’s true, but that’s the story that I got from Bibi (Netanyahu).”

‘SOMETHING YOU DO WITHOUT THINKING’

A Netanyahu spokesperson told Reuters that the wounded captain, identified by the ​Israeli leader’s office as Smit Machchhar, an Indian national, was covered with blood on the floor when he managed to click the release to open the cockpit door. Passengers who entered found the co-pilot bashing at the plane’s control ​panel, the spokesperson said.“This is something you do without thinking, just running to save your daughter’s life, your family’s life,” said Asaf Rajuan, one of the passengers who helped restrain the attacker. He spoke with a forehead still bloodied from the struggle.

Netanyahu’s office released ‌a video ⁠showing the prime minister at Ben Gurion Airport giving a hug to another passenger, Yaniv Hayun, who his office said “broke into” the cockpit. “I see you and I see a lion – a big hero,” Netanyahu told the man, who was still wearing the blood-stained shirt he had on during the flight.

Flydubai operates daily return flights between Dubai and Tel Aviv, a route that is popular among Israeli nationals. The flight path normally uses airspace over Saudi Arabia and Jordan.

It is not the first time a flight between Israel and the UAE has landed in Saudi Arabia. A flydubai flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv made an emergency landing in Riyadh in September 2025 due to a medical incident, Israeli media reported at the ​time.

Saudi Arabia’s Tabuk airport, where the plane landed, said both ​pilots had been hospitalised after sustaining injuries.

The incident heightened ⁠security fears in Israel weeks before Israelis vote in the first election since the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attacks, with Israel’s security figuring prominently in the campaigning.

Responding to the incident on X, far-right security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir wrote, “Terrorism is a devil with whom no agreement must be reached”.

ISRAEL TO TIGHTEN CHECKS ON PILOTS FLYING TO ISRAEL

Israeli media published conflicting reports ​on the incident, with some outlets reporting that a pilot had tried to crash the passenger plane in an alleged suicide attempt. Some Israeli media outlets initially identified ​the pilots as Omani and Emirati ⁠nationals, while others said they were Russian and Ukrainian.

“Every pilot that is going to be flying into Israel, we are going to know the pilots’ identities, know who they are, and do some type of security check,” Doron Spielman, a Netanyahu spokesperson, told Reuters.

Netanyahu met on Sunday with UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan during a rare visit to the Gulf country. Israel and the UAE have forged close security, military and economic ties since establishing diplomatic ties.

Israel provided the UAE earlier this ⁠year with Iron ​Dome air-defence systems and Israeli personnel to operate them, helping defend against Iranian attacks launched after Israel and the US began strikes on Iran.

The UAE ​government had yet to comment on the flydubai incident, while the Dubai state-owned airline said an “altercation” occurred in the cockpit and the flight subsequently diverted to Tabuk, where it landed safely. The UAE’s aviation regulator, the GCAA, said the flight “experienced a security incident that was brought under control”.