Houthi threat tests Pakistan's Mecca defense pact commitment

The foreign ministers of Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Türkiye met in New York on Friday under the framework of the Makkah Joint Defence Agreement. Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar of Pakistan joined Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan and Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan for the talks, which took place on the sidelines of the 81st United Nations General Assembly.

The meeting aimed to review progress on institutionalising the tripartite agreement, which was signed on August 7 and empowers member states to treat an attack against one of them as an attack against all. According to Dawn, the inaugural meeting of the agreement was held on August 31 in Istanbul, where officials established the institutional structure of the alliance and chose Pakistan to head its secretariat in Riyadh.

The talks come amid rising tensions in the region, with Yemen's Houthis launching strikes on the Saudi-backed government in Yemen and repeatedly firing into Saudi Arabia, disrupting oil flows. The Houthis said they had fired dozens of missiles and drones at Saudi targets on Thursday, while Saudi Arabia said it had intercepted six ballistic missiles fired by Houthi fighters, according to the Jerusalem Post and Business Recorder.

Saudi Arabia's top religious authority called on soldiers to be ready to lay down their lives to fight the Houthis until the group is ousted from power.

Brief written by urgent.news from Daily Times, Jerusalem Post, Business Recorder, Dawn, Dawn - Pakistan — 5 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.