After a stepped-up Houthi offensive, the three countries have invoked their collective-defence agreement. Pakistani and Turkish forces are to defend Saudi territory, but reportedly will not join operations inside Yemen.
The region’s long-running Yemeni conflict is back at the centre of Middle East security. According to a Central News Agency report carried by the Liberty Times on 8 October, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkey have for the first time activated a three-way collective-defence pact in response to the Houthi offensive, allowing Pakistani and Turkish forces to be deployed inside Saudi Arabia.
광고 문의 · 300×250The pact signed in August
The Financial Times reported that the three countries signed the so-called Mecca defence pact in August, with an attack on any member treated as an attack on all. The Houthis stepped up their offensive inside Yemen the same month, adding pressure on the Saudi-backed Yemeni government.
The report said Riyadh asked Washington for sustained US air strikes on the Houthis, but the US government declined. That is read as part of the background to Saudi Arabia diversifying its security partners and turning to two military heavyweights of the Muslim world.
Fronts and rival claims
Fighting spans several fronts, including the Red Sea coast and Taiz province in the south-west. Yemeni government officials say their forces, under air cover, retook Mocha, a Red Sea port near the Bab al-Mandab Strait. Houthi spokesman Yahya Saree claimed repeated long-range attacks on Saudi Arabia with ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and drones, naming Riyadh airport and the Rabigh refinery on the Red Sea coast. These are claims by the parties themselves and have not been independently verified.
The scale of outside involvement remains unclear. Turkey’s parliament has not yet ratified the Mecca pact, and the constitution bars sending ground troops without its approval. Gonul Tol of the Middle East Institute in Washington said that, at least for now, Turkish support is likely to take the form of equipment rather than troops. Pakistan has not disclosed deployment details; it already sent a fighter formation and an air-defence missile battery to Saudi Arabia in April.
Officials familiar with the arrangement say the pact is focused on collective defence: Pakistani and Turkish forces would defend Saudi territory and would not join the Saudi-led coalition’s operations against the Houthis in Yemen. Even so, with Red Sea shipping lanes and Gulf security intertwined, there is concern that a wider conflict could ripple through maritime logistics and energy markets.