TURKISH President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said it was possible that Egypt could join the “Mecca Pact” signed recently by his country, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.

He also repeated the claim made by Pakistan last week that the pact was open for other countries in the region to join.

Speaking to the Al Jazeera network in an exclusive interview, Mr Erdogan said the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement commits signatories to taking unified steps should any one of them come under external attack.

He said Egypt’s participation was among the options for the future expansion of the pact.

The pact was signed in the holy city on August 7 by President Erdogan, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Pakistan’s Prime Minister, Shehbaz Sharif. 

It stipulates that an armed attack against any one of the three would be treated as an attack against them all, a collective-deterrence provision similar to the Nato military alliance’s Article 5. 

But officials in Pakistan, the only one of the three signatories to the pact known to have nuclear weapons, have cautioned against interpreting it as a Nato equivalent or as being directed at any single country.

Mr Erdogan also spoke on a range of regional issues, including the Strait of Hormuz and the wars in Syria, Gaza and Lebanon.

The Turkish leader said reopening the strait was a priority for Ankara, arguing that its continued closure served no-one’s interests. He credited Qatar with playing an important role in mediation efforts to halt fighting in the region.

Mr Erdogan pledged his country would not leave its neighbours to face regional turmoil alone, singling out Syria, Gaza and Lebanon.

He said Ankara would do everything in its power to support stability in Syria, noting his plans to visit the country, and that Syria’s Kurds would have “a share of peace and stability.” 

He added that Turkey would also continue to strengthen ties with Kurdish communities and safeguard their rights across the region.

On Gaza, Mr Erdogan said Turkey “cannot leave Gaza alone” and would do whatever was necessary to support it. He said Hamas was meeting its commitments in good faith, while Israel continued its war.

Turning to Lebanon, the Turkish president said he had raised the need to end the war on Lebanon with the United States president during Donald Trump’s recent visit to Turkey, stressing Washington’s role in bringing the fighting to a close.