The Three Musketeers Of Islam: Saudi Arabia, Turkey And Pakistan Are Building A Military Alliance That Will Soon Find Itself Standing Against Israel And Jerusalem

The Telegraph has dubbed the emerging partnership between Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan “The Three Musketeers”, invoking the famous slogan “all for one, one for all,” and there is something almost darkly humorous about the comparison. On the surface, this is being presented as another strategic defense arrangement designed to strengthen regional security in an increasingly unstable world. But when you look at the three nations involved, the military power they represent, their relationship to the Islamic world, and their individual attitudes toward the Jewish state, it becomes increasingly difficult to imagine that Israel will not eventually become one of the primary objects of this alliance.

“For, lo, thine enemies make a tumult: and they that hate thee have lifted up the head.” Psalm 83:2 (KJB)

Saudi Arabia brings staggering financial power, enormous influence over the global energy markets and, perhaps most significantly, its position as guardian of Mecca and Medina, the two holiest cities in Islam. Turkey brings one of the largest and most capable military forces in the Muslim world, a rapidly expanding defense industry, advanced drones and missile technology, and a government under Recep Tayyip Erdoğan that has become increasingly hostile toward Israel. Pakistan brings a massive standing army and something that neither Saudi Arabia nor Turkey presently possesses: nuclear weapons. When you combine Saudi money, Turkish military capability and Pakistani nuclear power inside a developing Islamic security structure, you are no longer talking about a meaningless diplomatic photo opportunity. You are looking at the beginnings of a military bloc that has the potential to become enormously consequential, and prophetically deadly.

The leaders involved may insist today that their partnership is defensive, that it is not directed against any particular country and that its purpose is merely to protect their mutual interests. That is precisely the sort of language governments use when military alliances are being assembled. Alliances are rarely formed by announcing on the first day who the eventual enemy will be. Instead, nations construct the framework, establish military cooperation, conduct joint exercises, coordinate intelligence, share weapons technology and build the political relationships necessary for collective action. Then a crisis comes along and reveals what the structure was really capable of becoming. In the Middle East, the crisis that eventually forces everyone to choose a side has a remarkable way of coming back to the same place over and over again: Israel and Jerusalem.

Turkey has already traveled a considerable distance down that road. Erdoğan has spent years positioning himself as one of the loudest defenders of the Palestinian cause while his government’s relationship with Israel has deteriorated dramatically. Pakistan has never recognized the State of Israel at all, and opposition to Israel remains deeply embedded in its political and religious establishment. Saudi Arabia is the most fascinating member of this emerging trio because the kingdom has spent years appearing to move closer to possible normalization with Israel while simultaneously attempting to preserve its leadership position in the Islamic world. The Abraham Accords opened the possibility of an entirely new Middle Eastern security architecture centered around normalization with the Jewish state, and for years Saudi Arabia has been viewed as the ultimate prize of that process. Now Riyadh is simultaneously drawing closer militarily to Turkey and nuclear-armed Pakistan.

That tension cannot continue indefinitely, and Saudi Arabia cannot permanently occupy two geopolitical worlds if those worlds eventually collide. It can pursue commercial cooperation and diplomatic engagement with Israel while regional conditions remain relatively stable, but when the next major confrontation erupts over Gaza, Jerusalem, the Temple Mount, Iran, Lebanon, Syria or some crisis that has not yet appeared on the horizon, Riyadh may find itself forced to decide where its deepest loyalties actually reside. Saudi Arabia is not simply another Arab nation. It occupies a unique position within Islam itself, and the pressure upon the kingdom to stand with the Muslim world against Israel during a sufficiently explosive regional crisis would be tremendous.

That is why I believe the eventual direction of these “Three Musketeers” isn’t overly difficult to see. Turkey is already openly antagonistic toward Israel, Pakistan refuses even to recognize Israel’s existence, and Saudi Arabia is binding itself more closely to both countries militarily. Whatever cordial diplomatic language accompanies the arrangement today, this is a coalition being constructed from nations whose long-term interests and religious identity place them on a collision course with the Jewish state.

This is also where we have to rightly divide the prophetic scriptures and avoid one of the most common errors in modern prophecy teaching. This is not Ezekiel 38. Ezekiel 38 does not describe some Russian, Turkish, Iranian or Muslim coalition attacking modern-day Israel before the Tribulation or during the Church Age. The battle in Ezekiel 38 takes place after the thousand-year reign of Jesus Christ, when Satan is loosed from his prison and goes out to deceive the nations once again, exactly as Revelation 20:7–9 describes. Israel at that time is completely regathered and dwelling safely in unwalled villages without bars or gates because the Prince of Peace Himself has been ruling the earth from Jerusalem for a thousand years. Trying to squeeze today’s Middle Eastern alliances into Ezekiel 38 completely destroys the biblical timeline.

Ezekiel 39 is another matter entirely. Ezekiel 39 describes the great slaughter connected with the Battle of Armageddon at the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, corresponding with the scene presented in Revelation 19. The fowls and beasts being summoned to feast upon the slain, the enormous burial operation lasting seven months, the cleansing of the land and the seven years of burning the weapons all belong on the front side of the Millennium, not at the end of it. Ezekiel 39 and Revelation 19 belong together; Ezekiel 38 and Revelation 20 belong together. Those are two entirely different wars separated by at least one thousand years, and confusing them creates an enormous amount of unnecessary prophetic confusion. Understanding that distinction actually makes the present Saudi-Turkish-Pakistani alliance more interesting, not less. The Bible clearly shows that before Jesus Christ returns at the Second Advent, the nations of this world will be increasingly consumed with the controversy surrounding Israel and Jerusalem. The present-day rearrangement of military alliances throughout the Middle East is part of the world being prepared for the events that will ultimately culminate in the Time of Jacob’s Trouble and the Battle of Armageddon described in Revelation 19 and Ezekiel 39.

“And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.” Zechariah 12:3 (KJB)

There is the destination toward which the nations are moving. Jerusalem becomes the burdensome stone, and the nations eventually gather themselves against it. Bible prophecy has already shown us the ultimate disposition of the Gentile nations toward Jerusalem, and therefore we should pay very close attention when powerful Islamic countries begin organizing themselves into new military structures capable of acting collectively.

Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan are three very different nations with different political systems, strategic interests and regional priorities, yet Islam provides them with a powerful common identity and Israel provides them with an increasingly obvious common point of tension. Saudi Arabia possesses the money and religious prestige, Turkey possesses tremendous conventional military capability, and Pakistan possesses the Islamic world’s nuclear arsenal. Put those things together and you have the makings of a bloc that could exert tremendous pressure upon Israel when circumstances demand it.

For Saudi Arabia, that moment may ultimately involve choosing between continued rapprochement with Israel through the Abraham Accords and solidarity with an Islamic military bloc built around Ankara and Islamabad. I do not believe Saudi Arabia will ultimately choose Israel when that decision becomes unavoidable. Whatever temporary normalization arrangements may emerge along the way, the prophetic trajectory of the Middle East is not toward the nations embracing Jerusalem and the Jewish people. It is toward increasing pressure, increasing isolation and eventually the gathering of the nations against the land God gave to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

The Telegraph can call them the Three Musketeers and make the story sound almost whimsical, but there is nothing whimsical about an alliance connecting Saudi Arabia, Turkey and nuclear-armed Pakistan. These are three heavyweight Islamic powers creating a framework for collective military action at a moment when the Middle East is being rapidly rearranged and Israel is becoming increasingly isolated. I believe that sooner rather than later, the same leaders who today insist that this new arrangement is aimed at no particular country will find themselves confronted with the Israel question, and when that happens, there should be very little doubt which direction this alliance will move. The military architecture is being constructed now, the crisis that activates it will come later. When it does, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan will not be standing shoulder to shoulder in defense of the Jewish state. They will be standing on the other side as the Bible so clearly declares.

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