ISLAMABAD — Pakistan reaffirmed on Thursday that it stands firmly behind the Makkah defense agreement it shares with Saudi Arabia and Türkiye, even as it made clear that no military response was currently being planned following a wave of Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia.
Foreign office spokesperson Sajjad Haider Khan addressed the matter during a weekly briefing, dismissing talk of Pakistani military intervention against Yemen’s Houthi rebels as premature. “That is all a hypothetical situation as of now,” he said, adding that while the pact is real and binding, no specific plans have been drawn up.
The remarks followed a Tuesday strike that hit an air base in Khamis Mushait and damaged oil facilities nearby, injuring 73 people in one of the most severe assaults on Saudi Arabia since tensions with Iran escalated earlier this year, as reported by Arab News.
Signed last month, the trilateral pact declares that any act of aggression against one signatory will be treated as an attack on all three. Pakistan’s Defense Minister, Khawaja Asif, had earlier suggested the agreement could be activated should hostility continue against Saudi Arabia.
Khan noted that Pakistani forces already maintain a presence in Saudi Arabia for training and logistical purposes, separate from the pact itself. He described the broader alliance as a “collective security architecture” still in its early, formative stages, with detailed military protocols yet to be established.
He also rejected a Reuters report claiming Pakistan had warned Iran to restrain its Houthi allies, calling the story “unsubstantiated.” Khan emphasized that the alliance remains defensive in nature, built around deterrence rather than confrontation, with expansion to other nations not currently under consideration.
