Military chiefs from Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkiye will meet to discuss support for Riyadh under a joint defence pact as Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis step up attacks on Saudi targets.
The meeting comes after Saudi Arabia’s Grand Mufti, the kingdom’s top religious authority, called on troops to be prepared to lay down their lives in the fight against the Houthis.
The Houthis have targeted the Saudi-backed government in Yemen and repeatedly launched attacks on Saudi Arabia, disrupting oil flows from the world’s largest energy exporter.
The group said that it fired dozens of missiles and drones at Saudi targets on Thursday. Saudi authorities, however, said they intercepted six ballistic missiles launched by Houthi fighters.
Saudi Arabia had also issued emergency alerts for several areas, including Makkah, Jeddah and Yanbu, the country’s main Red Sea oil port.
The Grand Mufti called on Saudi soldiers to be ready to sacrifice their lives until the Houthis are removed from power, according to a statement issued late Thursday.
The development follows a meeting between the Saudi, Pakistani and Turkish foreign ministers under the Makkah Joint Defence Agreement, which was signed in August.
The ministers condemned attacks targeting Makkah and other civilian sites and affirmed Saudi Arabia’s right to defend itself.
A Saudi statement said the ministers also discussed arrangements for an urgent meeting of the three countries’ chiefs of staff to discuss ways to support Saudi Arabia under the agreement. The pact states that an attack on one of its parties constitutes an attack on all three.
The announcement came shortly after Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian sought to distance Tehran from Houthi actions during an interview with an international media outlet on Thursday.
“The Houthis are responsible for their own actions,” Pezeshkian said, a day after appearing before the UN General Assembly in New York.
Turkiye’s Defence Ministry said that Chief of General Staff General Selcuk Bayraktaroglu would travel to Saudi Arabia on Friday to meet his Saudi and Pakistani counterparts.
Ankara has previously said it could help meet Saudi Arabia’s military needs, particularly on technical matters. Turkish officials have said that any support at this stage would largely be bilateral and in line with the alliance, as Turkiye’s parliament has yet to ratify the joint defence agreement.
