ISLAMABAD/DUBAI – For much of the past year, Pakistan has played a dual role as Riyadh’s defense partner and Washington’s backchannel to Tehran but this week’s fighting between Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi movement and Saudi forces is increasingly testing how long Islamabad can hold both positions at once. The fighting represents the first major test of the mutual defense alliance that was signed between Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey last month, adding to a preexisting pact between Islamabad and Riyadh. Under the arrangement, an armed attack on any one of the three countries is to be regarded as an attack on all.
Pakistani officials worry the Houthi threat is more likely to draw Islamabad into a war than Iranian missile strikes on Saudi energy infrastructure were earlier this year. Pakistani soldiers are deployed near the Saudi border with Yemen, two Pakistani officials said in July, increasing their direct exposure.
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