The Gulf has learned that buying American weapons and hosting US bases is not the same as having a guarantee from America that holds. Washington’s appetite for absorbing the costs of being the Gulf’s permanent security guarantor has visibly diminished. A sobering realisation now dawns: there is no going back to the status quo ante.The Mecca pact is, therefore, principally about Saudi insecurity and its inability to protect itself and its interests. As a collective, it has a 3E gap.But first, let’s deconstruct the headlines.The N bluff The biggest headline is that Pakistan has extended its nuclear umbrella to the Saudis….