Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan plan urgent military chiefs meeting as Houthis step up attacks
Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan will hold an urgent meeting of their military chiefs under the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement, after Houthi missile and drone attacks on Saudi targets on Thursday.
Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan will hold an urgent, high-level meeting under a joint defence pact to discuss ways to support the kingdom amid attacks by Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis, Reuters reported on Friday.
The Houthis said they had fired dozens of missiles and drones at Saudi targets on Thursday, while authorities in Saudi Arabia said they had intercepted six ballistic missiles fired by Houthi fighters. The kingdom earlier issued emergency alerts for areas including the holy city of Mecca, Jeddah and Yanbu, the main Saudi Red Sea oil port.
Saudi Arabia’s top religious authority called on soldiers in the kingdom to be ready to fight the Houthis until the group is ousted from power, a statement posted on the Saudi state news agency said.
Amid the fighting, the Saudi, Pakistani and Turkish foreign ministers met within the framework of the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement, according to a Saudi foreign ministry statement. Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, Ishaq Dar and Hakan Fidan met at the kingdom’s Permanent Mission to the UN in New York on Thursday, The National reported.
The ministers condemned the attacks targeting Mecca and other civilian sites while affirming Saudi Arabia’s right to defend itself. “The ministers also discussed arrangements for holding an urgent meeting of the chiefs of staff of the three countries to discuss ways to support Saudi Arabia under the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement, which stipulates that an attack against any one of the parties constitutes an attack against all parties,” the statement said.
The announcement came shortly after Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian sought to distance Iran from the Houthis in an American television interview on Thursday, Reuters reported.
Sources
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