Islamabad, Pakistan — Turkiye and Pakistan are rushing their military chiefs to Riyadh in response to a call from Saudi Arabia for an urgent meeting on implementing their mutual defence agreement, amid the escalating war against the Houthis in Yemen that has spilled over into Saudi territory. Turkiye’s Defence Ministry confirmed on Friday that General Selcuk Bayraktaroglu, the chief of general staff, will be travelling to Saudi Arabia. Pakistan’s chief of defence forces, Field Marshal Asim Munir, is also expected to arrive in the Saudi capital soon, Al Jazeera has learned, though the Inter-Services Public Relations, Pakistan’s military media wing, did not respond to a request for confirmation on whether Munir had departed for Riyadh.
The developments follow a Saudi request to Turkiye and Pakistan for their military chiefs to convene, following weeks of Houthi missile and drone attacks on Saudi territory. The Houthis said on Thursday they had fired dozens of missiles and drones at Saudi targets, including a claimed strike on a “sensitive target” in Riyadh and on Saudi Aramco facilities in Yanbu. Saudi authorities said air defences intercepted six ballistic missiles aimed at Taif and Yanbu, and issued emergency alerts for Mecca, Jeddah and Yanbu.
The Mecca Joint Defence Agreement, signed on August 7, treats an attack on any one of Saudi Arabia, Turkiye and Pakistan as an attack on all three. Saudi Arabia’s account of the days before Friday’s meeting showed how urgently Riyadh sees the crisis. The meeting between three chiefs of staff was first announced after a meeting in New York on September 24 between the Saudi Foreign Minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan, Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Ishaq Dar, and Turkish Foreign Minister, Hakan Fidan.
According to the Saudi foreign ministry, they discussed arrangements for an urgent chiefs of staff meeting to explore ways of supporting Saudi Arabia under the pact. The statement condemned attacks targeting Mecca and civilian and economic facilities in the kingdom, and affirmed Saudi Arabia’s right to defend itself under Article 51 of the UN Charter. Pakistan’s account of the same meeting sounded more cautious.
Turkiye’s foreign ministry struck a similarly measured tone at the New York meeting. Turkish state media described it as a review of ongoing “technical negotiations” towards institutionalising the pact, ahead of a future meeting of its Strategic Political and Defence Committee. Days earlier, Fidan had struck a notably different note in a live interview with Turkish broadcaster NTV.
That caution may be connected to direct warnings the Houthis have issued to both countries, say analysts. The Iran-backed Houthis have in recent days made dramatic territorial gains against Yemen’s Saudi-backed, internationally recognised government forces. They seized the strategic port city of Mocha and then almost the entire Red Sea coast, including several islands.
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