Türkiye, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia Sign Mutual Defence Deal

Al Jazeera

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Pakistan PM Shahbaz Sharif.

Pakistan, Türkiye and Saudi Arabia have signed a mutual defence agreement on Friday, while the Iran-backed Houthi rebels have stepped up attacks on Saudi-linked targets.

The deal stipulates that an armed attack on either of the three countries will be regarded as an attack against them all. It was signed during a meeting in Saudi Arabia between Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Pakistan’s foreign ministry said.

“The Agreement is intended to strengthen collective deterrence against any act of aggression,” the ministry said in a statement.

The agreement comes as Saudi Arabia seeks to diversify its defence partnerships, following attacks on the kingdom's critical infrastructure and oil facilities during the conflict involving Iran.

The Associated Press reported, citing a military official with the forces in Marib, that Iran-backed Houthis launched attacks on Marib province in eastern Yemen Friday morning, in the latest escalation with Saudi-backed forces.

The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak to the media, said the missiles were fired from west of the Yemeni capital, Sanaa.

Qassem Bahaibah, health minister in Yemen’s internationally recognized government, said in a statement on social media that the attacks targeted a refugee camp and residential areas, killing at least two people and injuring 14 others.

Separately, the rebel group struck the Najran region in southwestern Saudi Arabia near the Yemeni border on Thursday, the official spokesperson of the Saudi-led Coalition to Restore Legitimacy in Yemen, Maj. Gen. Turki al-Malki, confirmed in a statement on X overnight. 

He said the attack wounded 11 civilians, including a woman and a child who suffered second-degree burns, and accused the rebels of carrying out “indiscriminate shelling against civilian objects.”

The rebel group did not claim responsibility for the attacks in Marib or Najran. A spokesperson for the Houthis, Nasruddin Amer, said on X on Friday that the group will continue to target gatherings of Saudi-backed forces.

The attacks mark a major escalation since a truce in 2022 largely halted fighting. The civil war pits the Iran-backed Houthis against a Saudi-led coalition allied with Yemen’s internationally recognised government.



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