Saudi Arabia Invokes Its Defence Pact With Turkey and Pakistan
The three countries’ foreign ministers met under the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement, which holds that an attack on one is an attack on all, and are arranging an urgent meeting of their chiefs of staff after Houthi missiles were fired towards Mecca, Jeddah and the Red Sea oil port of Yanbu. Saudi authorities said they intercepted six ballistic missiles. The Houthis said they had launched dozens of missiles and drones. The Saudi Grand Mufti told soldiers to be ready to give their lives.
A mutual-defence clause being formally invoked is a different order of event from another exchange of fire, and the membership is the point: Turkey and Pakistan are both mediators in the war, and Pakistan is the channel Iran has leaned on in the Gulf. If the pact is honoured in any practical way, two of the states trying to broker an end to the conflict become parties to it. Tehran’s answer was to disown the attacks entirely — President Masoud Pezeshkian said the Houthis “are responsible for their own actions”, a line that distances Iran from its most effective proxy at exactly the moment it is negotiating over the strait. France, meanwhile, is reported to be sending military assets to protect the Red Sea oil route. Watch what the chiefs of staff actually agree.