ANKARA, Sept 19 – Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on Saturday that Saudi Arabia may have military needs due to the ongoing attacks by Yemen’s Houthis and that Turkey was ready to help under a trilateral defence pact that also includes Pakistan.
He added, without elaborating, that proposals have been conveyed to all sides to end the fighting. “There are new proposals, I hope they accept them. Otherwise, the crisis was tolerated until a certain point, but the economic reflections have started to exceed the point of being tolerable.
Fidan said that it was unacceptable for Saudi Arabia to be made a part of the US-Iran war as it had no desire to join the conflict. “There are many initiatives, but the sides need to accept these,” he said. Turkey, which has NATO’s second-largest army, has said the pact with nuclear-armed Pakistan and top oil exporter Saudi Arabia was open to expansion and did not seek to replace any existing alliances. Pakistan has said that there were no discussions about a military reaction from Islamabad under the Mecca agreement in response to the Houthis’ attacks on Saudi Arabia, but added that Pakistan would act when the “time comes”. Earlier on Saturday, Yemen’s Houthis said they attacked “sensitive” sites in the Saudi capital Riyadh with missiles and drones, hours after flames and a large plume of smoke were seen near the city’s main airport.
US President Donald Trump has rebuffed pleas from the Saudis for military support to fight the Houthis, who agreed a ceasefire with the United States last year after Washington bombed the group for two months.
