The Turkish Parliament ratifies the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement

The Turkish Parliament approved the “Mecca Joint Defense Agreement” signed with Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, according to what Turkish official media reported on Friday.

The agreement signed between Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Pakistan stipulated that any attack on any of them is an attack on all of them.

Parliament approved the agreement by 279 votes to 119, according to what was reported by the official Anatolia News Agency.

The representative of the presidential "Justice and Development" Party, Ziya Altun Yildiz, said during deliberations in Parliament that the agreement is not directed against any country, and that its aim is not to escalate conflicts, but rather to prevent their outbreak, according to Anadolu Agency.

Satellite images showed indications of extensive construction work near two major missile bases in Iran, and the repair of military sites damaged by American and Israeli strikes in the war on Tehran, according to an analysis published by the verification team at the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).

Analysts at the British intelligence company Mayar said that photos taken in November showed excavation work and new buildings at the Ghoram Dara base in the city of Karaj, near Tehran, and the Shahroud base in the north of the country.

Indications of repairs were observed at at least 12 other military sites, including the erection of new roofs for destroyed buildings at the Kermanshah missile base, and the removal of rubble at the Parchin military complex.

Underground facilities

Jim Lamson, a former analyst at the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), suggested that the excavations near Shahrud are linked to missile production, indicating the possibility that the Revolutionary Guard may seek to move the production facilities underground to protect them.

Researcher Sam Lear, of the Foreign Policy Research Institute, said that the images of Karaj appear to show “a new entrance to an underground facility.” Excavations were also observed outside the entrances to tunnels near Qom, close to the Fordow nuclear facility.

Ready for new attacks

The actions come after Washington confirmed that the strikes severely weakened Iran's military capabilities. On the other hand, Tehran says it maintains large missile stocks, and its state television broadcast scenes that it said showed dozens of missiles at the entrance to an underground facility.

Mark Cancian, a military analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, considered that these activities indicate Iran's readiness for additional attacks, and its prioritization of rebuilding its military capabilities at the expense of reviving the economy.

The Turkish authorities arrested a former minister who is also vice-president of the ruling Justice and Development Party, led by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, against the backdrop of her alleged involvement in a stock price manipulation scandal involving a number of investment funds, according to what was reported by the Associated Press.

Fatma Betul Sayan Kaya resigned from her position as Vice President of the Justice and Development Party last September, shortly after allegations emerged that she had sold shares worth tens of millions of dollars ahead of the regulatory bodies’ decision to liquidate those investment funds due to suspicions of manipulation.

The official Anadolu Agency reported that Kaya, who held the Family and Social Affairs portfolio between 2016 and 2018, was placed in detention late on Thursday, awaiting a possible trial on charges that include belonging to a criminal organization and violating the Turkish financial markets law.

As for her husband, he was released on the condition that he appear regularly before the police, following a second round of interrogation to which the couple underwent.

Turkey's main opposition party accused Kaya of obtaining 2.17 billion Turkish liras ($43 million), after she reportedly invested 163 million liras ($3 million) in one of those funds.

For their part, the couple denied any wrongdoing, but they transferred part of the profits to an account designated by banking regulatory authorities, according to media reports.

In a related context, the Turkish Minister of Justice, Akin Gorlik, stated this week that more than 430 people are under investigation on suspicion of involvement in market manipulation and exploitation of inside information, noting that 112 of them have already been arrested as part of this scandal.