Pakistan says Mecca defence pact to hold emergency Riyadh talks on engaging Houthis politically

Iran has suggested engaging Yemen’s Houthis politically after their attacks on Saudi Arabia, and a committee of the Mecca defence pact will discuss the idea at an emergency meeting in Riyadh next week, Pakistan’s foreign minister said on Friday.

Ishaq Dar told a news conference that Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan — the pact’s three members — would decide next steps at the meeting, whose date would be confirmed later, Reuters reported. The political approach would be discussed as an alternative to “kinetic action”, he said, adding: “There is no written, solid offer. It is brainstorming between two foreign ministers.”

Dar said Iran had distanced itself from the Houthis and Iraqi militias, and that President Masoud Pezeshkian and Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi both wanted the matter concluded. He said he had briefed Tehran on the defence pact and how Pakistan would honour it.

More than six countries were keen to join the pact, Dar said, without naming them. New membership requests could not be entertained until the agreement was fully operational, which could take up to a year.

Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan signed the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement on August 7, pledging to treat an armed attack on any one of them as an attack on all three. Their military chiefs met in Riyadh on September 25 and condemned the Houthi attacks.

Pakistan’s military said in a statement on Friday that its top commanders strongly condemned Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia, expressing solidarity with the kingdom and commitment to the security of Islam’s holy sites. Dar also said there should be no fee or charges to cross the Strait of Hormuz, which he called the central bargaining chip in efforts to end the nearly seven-month US-Iran conflict.

TBS News and The Times of India corroborated the Reuters report.