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Türkiye, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia are set to convene the top-level committee of their joint defense pact in Riyadh next week as the three countries weigh their response to escalating Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia.
Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar announced the planned meeting Friday, saying the Strategic Political Defense Committee (SPDC) had agreed in principle to meet in the Saudi capital.
The committee brings together the foreign ministers, defense ministers and chiefs of General Staff from each of the three countries.
The three countries’ military chiefs met in Riyadh on Sept. 25 and condemned Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia, while their foreign ministers held talks in New York on Sept. 24. Pakistan’s military also expressed solidarity with Saudi Arabia and reaffirmed its commitment to the security of Islam’s holy sites.
Dar disclosed that Iran had suggested engaging Yemen’s Houthis politically after the group’s attacks on Saudi Arabia.
"There is no written, solid offer. It is brainstorming between two foreign ministers," Dar said, describing the proposal as a good-faith suggestion and an alternative to "kinetic action."
He recalled meeting Iranian officials in New York the previous week and said both Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi wanted the Houthi-Saudi conflict to end.
Dar stressed that he had briefed Tehran on the trilateral defense agreement signed in Mecca in August and that Pakistan would honor the pact. The Iranian side has distanced itself from both the Houthis and Iraqi militias, according to the Pakistani minister.
Any response, however, will be decided jointly by Pakistan, Türkiye and Saudi Arabia, he added.
Dar said more than six countries are interested in joining the defense agreement, although he did not identify them or specify whether they are all Muslim-majority countries. New membership requests cannot be considered until the pact becomes fully operational, a process that could take up to a year, he added.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif signed the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement on Aug. 7.
Under the agreement, an armed attack against one signatory is treated as an attack against all three.
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