Islamabad, Sep 25 (EFE).- Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkiye seek to convene an urgent meeting of their military chiefs of staff to determine how to support Riyadh under the Makkah Joint Defense Agreement (MJDA), following an escalation of Houthi missile and drone attacks on Saudi territory.
The move follows talks in New York among the three countries’ foreign ministers — Saudi Arabia’s Prince Faisal bin Farhan, Pakistan’s Ishaq Dar and Turkiye’s Hakan Fidan — held on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.
According to a statement from the Pakistani ministry of foreign affairs, the ministers reviewed progress on setting up the pact’s general secretariat and its committees and working groups, and discussed arrangements for the chiefs of staff to meet in Riyadh and explore options for supporting the Kingdom.
“The ministers also discussed plans to convene an urgent meeting of the chiefs of staff of the three countries to explore ways to assist the Kingdom under the Makkah Joint Defense Agreement, which stipulates that an attack against any one of its parties shall be considered an attack against all parties,” the statement said.
The ministers condemned the attacks on the Holy City of Makkah and on civilian and economic facilities in Saudi Arabia in the strongest possible terms, calling them heinous acts.
They praised the vigilance of the Saudi Armed Forces and their capacity to safeguard the Kingdom’s security, and reaffirmed Saudi Arabia’s right to take whatever measures it deems necessary to defend its security, consistent with Article 51 of the UN Charter, as per the statement.
The military push comes as Saudi-led forces claimed having intercepted and destroyed six Houthi ballistic missiles aimed at Taif and Yanbu.
Saudi Arabia’s Grand Mufti Sheikh Saleh bin Fawzan issued a rare public appeal urging troops on the front lines to remain steadfast against the Houthis, describing the defense of Saudi territory as among the nation’s highest duties.
The MJDA was signed on Aug. 7 in Mecca by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, and commits the three states to treating an armed attack on any one signatory as an attack on all of them, while broadening defense cooperation among them.
Analysts say the current crisis represents the pact’s first genuine test to see whether the framework, agreed upon in the shadow of Israel’s expanding regional reach and lingering tensions with Iran, can translate into concrete military coordination rather than remain a symbolic declaration. EFE
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