Turkey is lobbying to join a defence pact between Saudi Arabia and nuclear-armed Pakistan, a potential move that could create a new military bloc in the Middle East amid rising tensions in the Gulf and Iran.

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Oil-rich Saudi Arabia is the Arab world’s only G-20 economy and home to Mecca and Medina, the two holiest cities in Islam.

Pakistan is the Muslim-world’s only nuclear-armed state.

Turkey, which straddles Asia and Europe, boosts Nato’s second-largest army.