by Transition Protocol(opens in new tab) [8-23-2026] Pepe Escobar(bio)(opens in new tab).

Ten minutes before we went to air, sources inside the office of Iran’s Supreme Leader told us that Speaker Ghalibaf was discussing Pakistan’s invitation for Iran to become the fourth member of the Mecca Pact — hours before Field Marshal Asim Munir landed in Tehran. In this emergency Sunday broadcast, Pepe Escobar and Zulfiqar Ali break two source-based bombshells and then work through what Munir is actually carrying into Iran: the collapsed MOU, Scott Bessent’s economic pressure campaign, the terms of any return to talks, the Mecca Pact invitation itself, and Yemen.

Also in this episode: the Crown Prince of Bahrain — whose country hosts the largest US naval presence in the Gulf — reported to be in Islamabad negotiating entry into Pakistan’s joint defence agreements with Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. A target of raising Iran–Pakistan trade tenfold, from roughly $10 billion to $100 billion in three years, settled outside the dollar with Chinese and Russian backing. Why Tehran has told Washington that Qatar will not replace Pakistan as mediator. Why Escobar expects the New Delhi BRICS summit to end without a declaration. And why he believes the United States is closer to losing South Korea than anyone in Washington has noticed.

Pepe Escobar has reported on Eurasian geopolitics from the ground for three decades. Zulfiqar Ali hosts Transition Protocol and Power Shift. This broadcast contains source-based reporting that is not yet independently confirmed; claims are attributed on screen and their verification status is stated. Transition Protocol is a serious, source-driven geopolitical and economic analysis channel covering de-dollarisation, BRICS, the multipolar world order and the financial consequences of shifting global power.

Iran Was Invited Into the Mecca Pact. Munir Lands Monday.

Discussed inside Mojtaba Khamenei's office — and nobody outside three governments has read the pact's text.

Pakistan has asked Iran to join the Mecca Pact as its fourth member.

The invitation was discussed inside the office of Iran’s Supreme Leader on Sunday.

Field Marshal Asim Munir lands in Tehran on Monday and will raise it himself.

Nobody outside the three signatory governments has read the pact’s text.

So nobody can say who it binds against, including Iran.

The same agenda covers Yemen, where Escobar names Saudi refineries as retaliation targets — that is the line between this story and the pump.

Munir gets one sitting to make the case, and it is Monday.

6. Paywall teaser box

INSIDE THE PAID BRIEFING (What You’ll Unlock Below):

• The five items on Munir’s Tehran agenda — and the one Escobar says he cannot afford to fumble
• Why Qatar was refused as a substitute mediator, and what Tehran told Washington to do instead
• Bahrain’s crown prince, in a Pakistani military office — and which agreement he is actually discussing
• The East–West pipeline, Jizan and Yanbu: the targets Escobar names in any Yemeni retaliation
• What the $100 billion trade figure is measured against, and why that baseline is the weakest number in the episode
• The New Delhi BRICS summit, three weeks out, and why Escobar expects no final declaration

Excluded from this box on purpose: the claim about Iranian intent toward the US midterms. See Part 4.

Under GROWTH, the divider does not sit here. It moves to the end of deep-dive Section 2, marked below. The teaser box stays in the preview so a free reader knows what is coming before they hit the cut...