Pakistan pledges to defend Saudi Arabia against Houthi attacks
In a sign Pakistan may join the Middle East conflict, its government has pledged to use “whatever means are available” to defend Saudi Arabia against Iranian-backed rebels.
Pakistan Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif, speaking in Rome on Tuesday (Wednesday AEST), said his nation’s military forces would be available to the kingdom under a recently signed security pact between Pakistan, Turkey and Saudi Arabia.
Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif speaking in Rome on Tuesday, September 29. (AP Photo/Andrea Rosa)
“I’m not going into detail, but obviously when I say that we are bound by this arrangement to defend Saudi Arabia, that means whatever means are available at our disposal, they’ll be available to Saudi Arabia also. I think that’s a categoric statement,” he said.
Asif declined to confirm whether Pakistani forces had taken part in any strikes.
He also did not say whether Saudi Arabia has requested military aid.
His comments came after the army chiefs of Pakistan, Turkey and Saudi Arabia held talks in Riyadh to discuss responses to attacks by Iran-backed Houthi fighters.
The Houthis stepped up missile and drone attacks on Saudi Arabia and expanded their control along Yemen’s Red Sea coast, said Asif.
The Houthis recently captured the strategic port city of Mokha and several Red Sea islands, extending their reach toward the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a maritime route through which about 12 per cent of global trade passes.
A Houthi fighter fires a mounted machine gun at Saudi-backed forces in Yemen. (Ansar Allah Media Office via AP))
They, along with allied militias in Iraq, also have attacked Saudi oil facilities and sought to prevent Saudi tankers from using the strait.
Oil-rich Saudi Arabia, nuclear-armed Pakistan, and NATO member Turkey signed the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement in August, declaring that an attack on one member would be treated as an attack on all three.
The countries have described the pact as defensive and said it is not directed against any particular state.
Asif hinted current security arrangements had failed to protect Gulf countries as the Iran conflict spread across the Middle East.
“Once you start a conflict, you cannot control the outcome of that conflict. You cannot control the trajectory of that conflict,” he said.
Pakistan became a mediator in the US-Iran war earlier this year, hosting rare talks between the two warring parties.
American and Iranian officials reached an interim agreement in June and committed to trying to reach a final deal within 60 days, but the deadline passed after hostilities resumed.
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