Pakistan said there should be “no ambiguity” that an attack on any one of the three members of the newly formed Makkah Defence Alliance would be treated as an attack on all, as it warned that the pact could become operative following Houthi strikes on Saudi Arabia.
The minister said any unprovoked aggression against a member state, or a spillover of the Yemen conflict into Saudi Arabia, would activate the collective-defence provisions of the agreement signed by Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkiye in Makkah last month. “This is not an aggressive agreement under which the three countries would, on their own initiative, attack another country. Defence Minister Khawaja Asif’s remarks on Tuesday come hours after Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi forces launched a wave of missile and drone attacks on Saudi Arabia, targeting cities and economic and energy infrastructure and injuring at least 73 civilians.
“There should be no ambiguity; there is no need for any clarity that this is a joint defence agreement,” Asif said in an interview with Geo TV channel. Pakistan would honour its commitments to Saudi Arabia under the pact, he said. Asif, however, said he was not aware of any contact between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia following the Houthi attacks. But if there is any aggression against one member state, all three member states will respond,” the minister said. The minister said the Makkah alliance could serve as a deterrent and did not necessarily mean that the three countries would respond to aggression with military force.
