Houthi attacks put Makkah defence pact to test as allies call 'emergency meeting'

Pakistan, Turkiye and Saudi Arabia will hold an emergency meeting of the Makkah defence alliance’s top political and military body in Riyadh next week to discuss the escalating Houthi attacks on the Gulf kingdom, Pakistan Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said on Friday. The talks will bring together senior foreign, defence and military officials of the three countries as the alliance confronts a major regional security challenge barely two months after it was established.

Dar said the decision followed consultations between the foreign ministers of the three countries on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York last month. He said he, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud had discussed the deteriorating security situation and agreed on the need for further coordinated action.

Emergency talks next week

The meeting will involve the Strategic Political Defence Committee, the key decision-making mechanism established under the Makkah Joint Defence Agreement. The body brings together the foreign ministers, defence ministers and senior military chiefs of Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkiye.

Dar said the emergency session would be held next week, ahead of another meeting that had already been envisaged for the end of October or beginning of November. The immediate discussions will focus particularly on attacks against Saudi Arabia by Yemen’s Houthis and how the three allies should respond under the new defence framework.

The pact was signed on August 7 and provides for the three members to treat an attack against one of them as an attack against all. Its institutional structure is still being developed, with a permanent secretariat being established in Riyadh under retired Pakistani Lt Gen Nauman Mahmood.

Military chiefs already met

The forthcoming meeting follows urgent consultations between the military leaderships of the three countries. Pakistan’s Field Marshal Asim Munir, Saudi Chief of General Staff Gen Fayyadh bin Hamed Al-Ruwaili and Turkiye’s Chief of General Staff Gen Selcuk Bayraktaroglu met in Riyadh on September 25 to discuss the security situation and threats facing Saudi Arabia.

The three military chiefs subsequently expressed their determination to translate the commitments contained in the defence agreement into military cooperation. The talks were convened as missile and drone attacks attributed to the Houthis intensified pressure on the kingdom.

The emergency SPDC meeting will broaden those consultations by bringing together the political and defence leaderships of all three members.

Medina attack condemned

Dar also condemned an attack on an electricity distribution facility in Medina that Saudi authorities blamed on the Houthis. The Saudi-led coalition said the strike hit the Taibah electricity distribution station, which supplies power to the Prophet’s Mosque, and put one transformer out of service without disrupting the wider electricity network.

The Houthis denied responsibility for the Medina incident. A Houthi military source quoted by the group’s Saba news agency rejected the Saudi-led coalition’s account, making responsibility for the strike a contested claim.

The incident has nevertheless heightened concern in Riyadh as Saudi Arabia faces a broader escalation in missile and drone attacks attributed to the Yemeni group.

Iran suggests political route

Dar said Pakistan had also held detailed discussions with Iran about the attacks and reminded Tehran that Islamabad had obligations under its trilateral defence agreement with Saudi Arabia and Turkiye.

According to Dar, Iran denied association with both the Houthis and Iraqi militia groups and suggested that the Yemeni movement should be engaged politically rather than through “kinetic action”. The possibility of political engagement with the Houthis is expected to form part of the discussions when the three allies meet in Riyadh.

The issue leaves the alliance confronting a difficult strategic calculation: how to meet its collective defence commitments while avoiding an escalation that could broaden the conflict across the region.

Six countries want to join

Dar also disclosed that more than six countries had expressed interest in joining the Makkah defence pact, although he declined to identify them. He said applications for membership could not immediately be considered because the alliance first needed to become fully operational, a process he indicated could take up to a year.

Any decision on expansion would have to be taken collectively by the three founding members. The interest from other countries, if translated into eventual membership, could significantly broaden the geographical and strategic reach of an alliance currently centred on three major Muslim-majority states.

For now, however, the immediate focus is Saudi security. The emergency Riyadh meeting will provide an early indication of how Pakistan, Turkiye and Saudi Arabia intend to translate the collective-defence language of their new pact into policy when one of its members faces an active external security threat.