Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan Hold Urgent Chiefs-of-Staff Talks After Houthi Attacks

Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan are convening an urgent meeting of their chiefs of staff after a sharp escalation in ballistic missile and drone attacks on Saudi territory by Yemen's Houthi movement. Turkey's Ministry of National Defence announced that Chief of General Staff General Selçuk Bayraktaroğlu will travel to Saudi Arabia to attend the Mecca Defence Pact chiefs-of-staff gathering, which Riyadh called on an emergency basis. The talks are expected to focus on what military assistance the three countries can extend to Saudi Arabia under the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement, a pact whose terms reportedly treat an attack on any one of the three signatories as an attack on all. The meeting follows intensified Houthi strikes, which Saudi officials have characterised as a direct threat requiring a coordinated allied response. In a parallel development, Iraq has further curtailed Iranian flights over its territory in line with pressure from the United States, adding a second layer of regional tension to the crisis. The reporting does not specify a date for the meeting, the precise scale of recent Houthi attacks, or what concrete forces or assets might be committed.

Global Impact

Geopolitically, this is the first serious test of whether the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement functions as a real mutual-defence instrument or a paper commitment, and the answer will shape how Riyadh, Ankara and Islamabad align against Iranian-backed actors for years. A Turkish or Pakistani military role in Saudi air defence would widen the conflict's participant list beyond the Gulf, complicating US and NATO calculations given Turkey's membership.