Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, once the head of the former al-Qaeda offshoot Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), visited Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Wednesday and signed a variety of agreements alongside that country’s crown prince, including a defense agreement.
Both Syria’s state-run Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) and the state-run Saudi Press Agency (SPA) mentioned an agreement between the defense ministries of the respective countries as one of a long list of deals and memoranda of understanding signed on Wednesday, choosing to downplay its significance in contrast to deals to help rehabilitate Syria’s power grid, water supply, and other critical infrastructure following the end of the decade-long civil war in 2024.
The defense agreement announcement followed reports, then corroborated by Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani, that Syria was considering becoming part of the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement, signed in August between Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Pakistan. The agreement made headlines as a paradigm-shifting pact between a NATO state, a nuclear-armed state, and the heart of the holiest sites in Islam, particularly because it reportedly included an agreement for states to consider an attack on one of them an attack on them all. Shortly after the signing, Iran’s terrorist proxy in Yemen, the Houthis, began attacking civilian sites in Saudi Arabia, but neither Pakistan nor Turkey have taken any definitive steps towards attacking the Houthis since. Syria, meanwhile, has enthusiastically rejected any active military role in the ongoing conflict in the region involving Iran.
According to SPA, Sharaa and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) held discussions on a variety of subjects, “including the grave repercussions any military escalation could have on regional and international security and stability.” Both parties reportedly “called for an immediate halt to all acts threatening the security of navigation and waterways in the Red Sea, Bab al-Mandab Strait, and the Strait of Hormuz.”
The Bab el-Mandab Strait is the maritime pathway leading south out of the Red Sea and into the Indian Ocean. The Houthis have for months staged organized attacks on ships in the region, attempting to disrupt global shipping, particularly the shipping of oil out of Saudi Arabia. Iran itself has consistently taken similar measures to disrupt global shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.
The SPA article noted that Syria and Saudi Arabia signed “an agreement on cooperation between the two countries’ defense ministries,” without elaborating. Reuters, in reporting on the announced deal, observed that “no details were provided,” leaving the public uncertain about whether the agreement would result in any significant Syrian presence in the Houthi conflict.
SANA similarly mentioned defense cooperation in passing, as an afterthought on a long list of cooperation agreements signed on Wednesday.
“The agreements and memorandums cover development, infrastructure, energy, housing, health, industry, agriculture, the environment, military cooperation and financial services,” SANA observed.
In its analysis of the agreements, SANA offered no more clarity on any military or defense cooperation, instead placing emphasis on Saudi Arabia’s investment in rehabilitating Syrian infrastructure.
“The projects include rehabilitating the Aleppo power station, supplying and installing 300,000 smart water meters in Damascus and Idlib, and constructing or rehabilitating 25 Civil Defense centers across several governorates,” SANA observed. “The package further provides for the rehabilitation of damaged hospitals and health centers, along with 10,000 damaged housing units in an initial phase.”
Much of Syria was completely destroyed by the civil war between deposed dictator Bashar Assad, now in exile in Russia, and a variety of Syrian rebel groups, of which HTS was the most successful. The war spanned from 2011 to 2024 and included a variety of conflicts not directly related to Assad, such as the founding of the Islamic State “caliphate” and the U.S.-Kurdish operations that led to its demise in 2017. The war resulted in one of the world’s largest migrant crises and a country that is still in many regions uninhabitable.
Despite the lack of details on the agreement, it does not appear at press time that it has any relation to the Mecca agreement. As of last week, Shaibani suggested that Syria was only considering joining the defense pact.
“Regarding Mecca pact integration, there are some negotiations on this issue and regardless of whether it is in the pact or not, or any other pact, Syria is part of the security of this region and it’ll stand by any organisation that protects the security of this area,” Shaibani said at the Manama Dialogue, a regional security conference in Bahrain.
Sharaa’s government has condemned Houthi attacks, however, and expressed diplomatic support for Saudi Arabia.
“Syria’s position is clear: we stand firmly with Saudi Arabia against threats to its security and stability,” Syrian Response, a social media account run by the Sharaa government, declared in October. “At the same time, Syria’s policy in the region is focused on stability, peace and cooperation, not opening new fronts.”
Saudi Arabia is Syria’s closest ally, investing heavily in the reconstruction of the country and taking a leading role in reintegrating Syria into the world community. Crown Prince MBS was credited with facilitating Sharaa’s first meeting with President Donald Trump in May 2025, which resulted in the U.S. government removing Syria from the State Sponsors of Terrorism list and lifting Assad-era sanctions.
