Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkey sign Nato-style defence pact amid deadly Houthi strikes in Yemen

Original article by Patrick Wintour Diplomatic editor

Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkey have signed a mutual defence agreement, placing three of the Muslim world’s most influential states into a Nato-style pact, as Riyadh confronts attacks from Iran-aligned Houthis in Yemen.

The Houthis and Saudi Arabia have increased their military exchanges in the past month and the first test of the tripartite pact long in preparation may come in Yemen.

On Thursday, one of the deadliest days in the conflict for years, the Houthis killed at least 58 Yemeni government troops in missile and drone attacks, according to a military source. A separate attack into southern Saudi Arabia, bordering Yemen, injured 11 civilians.

The three Sunni Muslim-led countries are concerned by increasing regional jeopardy after the US-Israeli war on the Shia government in Iran, with Donald Trump unable to contain ‌the conflict.

It is disputed whether the Houthi group is acting on the instruction of Iran, or instead, as it insists, trying to lift what it regards as a Saudi blockade of Houthi-controlled territory inside Yemen.

The present conflict broke out when an Iranian plane flew to the Houthi-controlled capital, Sana’a, supposedly to transport a Yemen delegation to the funeral of the former Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei. Saudi intelligence claimed the plane was carrying Iranian weaponry for the Houthis.

Riyadh has already developed a 10-nation naval coalition that is supposed to protect commercial shipping from Houthi attacks in the Red Sea and the Bab-el-Mandeb strait. The Houthis insist they are firing only on Saudi-linked shipping and there is no immediate sign that the naval coalition is deterring the Houthis.

A Houthi drone strike on Friday killed a further three members of Yemen’s government in an attack on a military camp in Marib. Ten missiles and seven explosive drones were fired. The Houthis said they were reacting to what appeared to be a large Saudi-led military buildup.

Saudi intelligence sources say they are picking up reports not just of increased Houthi hostility but likely attacks on Saudi interests by Iranian-backed militia inside Iraq. Saudi Arabia has been working to persuade Trump not to launch massive attacks into Iran.

The Mecca Joint Defence agreement stipulates that an attack on one country will be deemed an attack on all, but whether any conditions are attached to this collective defence pledge is unclear.

A Saudi spokesperson, in response to the Houthi attacks, said it did not “seek escalation but we will not allow the current balance of power on the ground to be changed”.

Yemeni sources said recently they believed Saudi Arabia was preparing for a major military offensive against the Houthis by sea and possibly by land in central Yemen, in a move to break their chokehold on Saudi oil exports through the southern Red Sea.

In a separate attack early on Friday, a Saudi official accused the Houthis of indiscriminately shelling civilian areas in Saudi Arabia, injuring 11 civilians, including a four-year-old child. Maj Gen Turki al-Maliki, spokesperson for the Saudi-led military coalition supporting Yemen’s government, said the coalition would continue taking all necessary ⁠measures to protect civilians.

The attack was in southern Najran province, and injured seven Saudis, one Yemeni, two Egyptians ⁠and one Pakistani national, al-Maliki said. Neither the Houthis nor Iran immediately commented on Friday’s attack.

Saudi Arabia and the Houthis have been vying for control of Yemen for more than a decade, but over the past month an uneasy status quo has unravelled, with the Houthis mounting attacks against Saudi Aramco oil facilities.

The Houthi movement, which controls Sana’a and much of Yemen’s Red Sea coastline, declared a naval blockade of Saudi Arabia in the Red Sea last month.

Saudi Arabia has been leading a military coalition supporting Yemen’s government against the Houthis since 2015. Yemen, already battered by more than a decade of war, has increasingly been drawn into the regional confrontation centred on Iran.

The Houthis abandoned a largely successful 2022 truce with the Saudi-backed government.

Separately, after the implosion of the separatist Southern Transitional Council (STC) in the south of Yemen in January, Saudi Arabia took greater responsibility for funding and organising the UN-recognised government in Yemen. The STC leadership overreached in December, trying to take control of the whole of the south, but were beaten back by a surprisingly fierce Saudi reaction.

Saudi Arabia has subsequently reconstructed Yemen’s government, excluding southern separatists, but the government is struggling to provide services, and the latent support for separatism in the south remains. The bulk of the STC leadership is in exile or under a form of arrest in Riyadh.

Iran and Oman have said negotiations on an agreement over the strait of Hormuz are in the “final stage” of drafting. The agreement is expected to be contingent on the US lifting its blockade on Iran’s ports.

The strait is crucial to global shipping and energy supplies. Before the war, which began with US and Israeli strikes on Iran in February, about one-fifth of the world’s traded oil and fossil gas passed through the waterway at the mouth of the Persian Gulf.

Reuters, Associated Press and Agence France-Presse contributed to this report