The Mecca pact is a sign US power is waning in the Middle East

THE Mecca pact between Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan — which Egypt is now being wooed to join — is a sign that for all Donald Trump’s bluster, the decline of US power continues. Indeed, he is accelerating it, at least in the Middle East (the continuing advance of far-right politics in Latin America suggests a different story there). The Mecca Joint Defence Agreement is clearly a response to the failed US-Israeli war on Iran. The war has forced a rethink of military alignments. The…