Pakistan is considering airstrikes against Houthi forces in Yemen at Saudi Arabia's request, according to Pakistani sources cited by Turkiye Today, in what would be the first activation of the defence pact Islamabad signed with Riyadh and Ankara last month.
No final decision has been made. The sources said an operation could take place soon and would be made public shortly afterward, and that one military priority would be clearing Houthi forces from Saadah and other areas of northern Yemen. Pakistani officials have not publicly confirmed any plan to strike, and the report has not been independently verified.
What is confirmed is the shift in Pakistani rhetoric. Defence Minister Khawaja Asif said Tuesday there should be no ambiguity that an attack on any one member of the Makkah Defence Alliance would be treated as an attack on all. He said unprovoked aggression against a member state, or a spillover of the Yemen conflict into Saudi Arabia, would activate the agreement's collective defence provisions.
Asif spoke hours after Houthi forces launched a wave of missile and drone attacks on Saudi Arabia, striking cities and economic and energy infrastructure and injuring at least 73 civilians. The Houthis said the attacks answered dozens of recent Saudi airstrikes on areas of northwestern Yemen under their control. The group has attacked Saudi oil infrastructure and tankers repeatedly since July, when a truce dating to 2022 broke down, and has declared a maritime blockade of the kingdom. The pressure comes on top of the disruption to Saudi exports caused by Iran's closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
The Mecca Joint Defence Agreement was signed by Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey on August 7. It establishes a collective security arrangement modelled on Article 5 of the NATO treaty, under which an armed attack on any signatory is treated as an attack on all three. A subsequent meeting in Turkey established a permanent secretariat, to be based in Saudi Arabia, and officials said a mechanism was being prepared for other states to join.
Until now the pact had shown little sign of operating. Neither the earlier Houthi drone attacks on Najran airport and an Aramco facility, nor Israel's strike on the Abu al-Duhur airbase in northern Syria aimed at blocking a planned Turkish deployment, produced any joint response. Iranian-American academic Vali Nasr noted in August that the alliance was not playing a role, while allowing that this could change.
Whether Pakistan follows through is being watched well beyond the Gulf. Analysts have argued that action over Yemen would be the first indication the alliance functions as more than a declaration, an outcome of direct interest to Israel, India and Greece.
