Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan defended the Mecca Alliance against criticism that Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia were its “first test.”

Fidan compared it to NATO, asking former U.S. Ambassador to Türkiye James Jeffrey how many times NATO’s Article 5 had been invoked. After Jeffrey answered “only once,” Fidan said it was unfair to judge a new defense alliance using a 10-year conflict as evidence that it does not work.

“Nobody criticizes NATO as a paper tiger. But when it comes to a newborn defense alliance, they point to a 10-year crisis in Yemen and say, ‘Look, this is not working.’ We have only just started.”