Pakistan says Makkah alliance will act if Yemen war spills into Saudi Arabia

Pakistan said the Makkah Defence Alliance would activate if the Yemen conflict spills into Saudi Arabia. The warning casts the new pact as a deterrent while underlining that it is not for aggression.

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His remarks came hours after Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi forces launched a wave of missile and drone attacks on Saudi Arabia, targeting cities as well as economic and energy infrastructure. At least 73 civilians were injured in the strikes.

Asif said any unprovoked aggression against a member state, or any spillover of the Yemen conflict into Saudi Arabia, would activate the collective defence provisions of the agreement signed in Makkah last month. "There should be no ambiguity; there is no need for any clarity that this is a joint defence agreement," he said in an interview with Geo TV.

He said Pakistan would honour its commitments to Saudi Arabia under the pact. "There should be no doubt about this. We are bound by the terms and conditions of this pact and, God willing, we will honour them in case there is a need," Asif said.

At the same time, the minister said he was not aware of any contact between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia following the Houthi attacks. He stressed that the agreement was defensive and did not authorise the three countries to launch attacks against another state on their own.

"This is not an aggressive agreement under which the three countries would, on their own initiative, attack another country. But if there is any aggression against one member state, all three member states will respond," he said.

Asif said he hoped tensions would ease, but warned the Houthis against taking the Yemen conflict beyond the country's borders. "If they try to export them, the clauses of this agreement to counter aggression will become operative," he said.

He described the Houthis as "non-state actors" and said there was sympathy for Iran across the Muslim world, including Yemen, over its ongoing conflict with the United States. He also cautioned against letting such sentiment be used to widen an existing bilateral dispute.

Asif said the Makkah alliance could act as a deterrent and did not necessarily mean the three countries would answer aggression with military force. "We don't need to respond to a brick with a stone," he said, adding that the combined military capabilities of Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkiye should themselves act as a deterrent.

He also said Saudi Arabia should not be dragged into what he described as an internal conflict in Yemen, and expressed hope that diplomatic efforts would prevent further escalation. A Saudi-led coalition of Arab states has backed Yemen's internationally recognised government in its war against the Houthis for more than a decade.

The Houthis said Tuesday's attacks were retaliation for dozens of recent Saudi airstrikes on areas of northwestern Yemen under their control. On Monday, the group accused Saudi Arabia of bombing a prison in Al Hazm, killing at least 11 people. Pakistan's position, as set out by Asif, was that the Makkah pact is defensive, but would come into effect if any member state faces aggression.

With PTI Inputs

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