Source : INDIA TODAY NEWS
The three countries behind the newly formed Mecca Joint Defence Agreement are preparing for a crucial meeting in Riyadh as the Houthi threat to Saudi Arabia intensifies and Yemen’s Saudi-backed government launches a major offensive against the Iran-aligned group.
A committee of the defence pact between Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkey will meet in Riyadh on Monday to discuss the raging regional developments and the progress made in putting the alliance’s military and overall framework in place. Turkey’s Foreign Ministry said Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, Defence Minister Yasar Guler and Chief of General Staff General Selcuk Bayraktaroglu will attend, alongside officials from Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.
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The meeting comes at a particularly tense moment. Yemen’s internationally recognised government announced on Sunday that it had begun an all out military campaign to retake territory controlled by the Iran-backed Houthis.
MECCA PACT’S FIRST BIG TEST
The Riyadh meeting could provide an early indication of how the three countries intend to respond when one of them faces a direct security threat.
Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkey signed the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement on August 7. Under the pact, an armed attack on any one of the three would be treated as an attack on all three.
The agreement was followed by efforts to build the institutions needed to make the pact operational. The countries’ foreign and defence ministers and military chiefs met in Istanbul in August, while their military chiefs held further discussions in Riyadh on September 25.
The latest meeting is expected to focus on both the alliance’s institutionalisation and the rapidly changing security situation around Saudi Arabia. Turkey said the talks would address “recent developments in the region and the stage reached in the Alliance’s institutionalisation efforts”.
The timing is significant because Saudi Arabia is now facing a sustained campaign from the Houthis, including attacks that the group says have targeted the kingdom’s energy infrastructure.
IRAN’S PROPOSAL ON THE TABLE
Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said on Friday that Iran had suggested trying to engage the Houthis through political channels. According to news agency Reuters, Dar said the proposal would be discussed by the Mecca pact committee at its emergency meeting in Riyadh. He described the idea as a suggestion made in good faith rather than a formal written offer.
“There is no written, solid offer. It is brainstorming between two foreign ministers,” Dar said, adding that the political approach would be considered as an alternative to “kinetic action”.
Dar also said Iran had distanced itself from the Houthis and Iraqi militias and that Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi wanted the issue resolved.
At the same time, Pakistan has backed Saudi Arabia’s security. The country’s military said its senior commanders had condemned Houthi attacks on the kingdom and expressed solidarity with Riyadh and support for the security of Islam’s holy sites.
Dar also said more than six countries were interested in joining the Mecca pact. However, he said new membership requests could not be considered until the alliance became fully operational, a process that could take up to a year.
YEMEN OPENS A NEW BATTLEFIELD
The diplomatic discussions come as the military situation in Yemen takes a sharp turn. President Rashad al-Alimi, who heads Yemen’s Saudi-backed Presidential Leadership Council, announced on Sunday that government forces had begun a major operation to retake areas held by the Houthis.
Al-Alimi said the offensive would continue until the country was “liberated from the grip of the terrorist militia”. A military spokesman later called on the Houthis to surrender their weapons.
The Houthis have controlled Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, and large parts of the northwest since 2014. Years of Saudi, Emirati and Western-backed military operations failed to dislodge them, and the group has continued to develop its missile and drone capabilities with Iranian support.
The Houthis seized the strategic Bab el-Mandeb Strait and around 150 km of Red Sea coastline during a rapid offensive last month. That has given the group greater leverage over one of the world’s most important maritime chokepoints.
Bab el-Mandeb connects the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden and is a crucial route for ships travelling between Europe and Asia.
HOUTHIS TARGET SAUDI ENERGY SITES
The latest escalation has also brought Saudi Arabia’s oil infrastructure into the spotlight. The Houthis said they launched ballistic missiles and drones at Saudi Aramco sites in Riyadh and the Khurais area. The group claimed the attacks caused major fires and were retaliation for around 50 Saudi-led air and missile strikes on Yemen over a 12-hour period.
Reuters reported separately that witnesses saw fire and smoke near an Aramco facility in Riyadh after the Houthis claimed an attack on the site. There was no immediate official confirmation from Saudi authorities or Aramco of damage caused by the strike.
The attacks underscore why the security pact is facing an early and potentially consequential test. While the Red Sea coast has emerged as a strategic prize, fighting is also intensifying around Taiz.
Houthi forces have recently made gains around strategic hilltops near the city and advanced towards the last road connecting Taiz with Aden, according to military sources cited by Reuters. If the Houthis were to control that route, Taiz could effectively face a siege. The city is Yemen’s third-largest and is home to hundreds of thousands of civilians, as well as government forces.
The situation is also worsening an already severe humanitarian crisis. The World Food Programme said last week that three in four families in parts of Yemen were going hungry as renewed fighting displaced tens of thousands and disrupted supplies.
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SOURCE :- TIMES OF INDIA
