Pakistan, Turkey deploy troops to Saudi Arabia under Mecca Defense Pact as Yemen forces retake key port

• Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan activated the Mecca Defense Pact on Monday, agreeing to rapid troop deployment to counter Houthi attacks.
• Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces retook the port city of Mokha and secured areas around the strategic Bab al-Mandeb Strait.
• The Houthis continued attacks, warning Saudi airspace was unsafe and claiming strikes on Riyadh airport and an Aramco refinery.
• The collective defense pact, signed August 2026, treats attacks on any member as an attack on all, mirroring NATO’s Article 5.
• About 200 U.S. advisers are operating in Saudi planning centers while Washington backs Riyadh’s right to self-defense.

Emergency meeting triggers military response

Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan activated collective deterrence measures Monday under their new mutual defense alliance, the Mecca Pact, and agreed to rapidly deploy military forces to the kingdom as Saudi-backed Yemeni forces launched a major offensive against Iran-aligned Houthi rebels.

The decision came after an emergency meeting of the pact’s Strategic Political and Defense Committee in Riyadh, where representatives condemned recent attacks on Saudi Arabia, including those targeting the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. The three countries “agreed to activate collective deterrence measures, within the framework of the Alliance, in response to the attacks and all those responsible for them,” Saudi Defense Minister Khalid bin Salman said in a social media post.

The agreement declares that an attack on any of the three nations will be treated as an attack on all, mirroring a central provision of NATO’s founding treaty.

Yemen forces retake strategic territory

Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces reported significant gains Monday along the Red Sea coast, saying they had retaken the port city of Mokha and secured the Dhubab airport while cutting the road linking Dhubab to Mokha. Military spokesman Majed al-Nuzaili said government forces had secured effective control of the strategic Bab al-Mandeb Strait, though a government source acknowledged fighting continued at a nearby military base.

The offensive, dubbed Operation Yemen Dawn, aims to recover territory the Houthis captured over 12 years of war. Saudi-led coalition spokesman Maj. Gen. Turki al-Malki said 100 fighter jets were providing round-the-clock support, destroying 324 “high-value” Houthi targets. The government’s stated objectives include retaking Sanaa, the capital held by Houthis since 2014.

Nuclear-armed ally joins fight

Pakistan and Turkey’s troop deployment carries deep symbolic weight across the region. Pakistan is the Muslim world’s only nuclear-armed state and has served as a mediator between Iran and the United States. Turkey, a NATO member, has positioned itself as a rival to Israel and maintains significant military capabilities.

Pakistan already has tens of thousands of troops in the kingdom, with Reuters reporting last week that Islamabad sent four planeloads of weapons to the port city of Aden. A Western official in the Gulf told Middle East Eye that Pakistani personnel are already deployed in southern Yemen.

The three alliance members combined have nearly 1.4 million active troops, about 3,400 military aircraft, 6,000 tanks and more than 340 naval assets, according to the 2026 Global Firepower Index.

Houthis vow continued attacks

The Houthis denied reports of government advances around Bab al-Mandeb and claimed attacks on the King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh and the Aramco refinery in coastal Rabigh. The group’s HOCC agency warned airlines that Saudi airspace was unsafe for civilian flights and would become a “theater of operations.”

The Houthis have long framed their attacks as resistance to Israel’s war in Gaza, which the United Nations and human rights experts have called a genocide. A previous U.S.-Houthi ceasefire brokered by Oman in early 2023 halted American airstrikes but failed to address Houthi operations against Israel.

Regional security architecture emerges

The activation of the Mecca Pact represents what analysts describe as a critical juncture in Middle East security. Abdulaziz Alghashian, a senior non-resident fellow at the Gulf International Forum, said the decision offered a glimpse of a regional security architecture taking shape after years of discussion with limited action.

The United States has backed Saudi Arabia’s right to respond, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio affirming Washington’s support and noting its binding security agreement with Riyadh. About 200 U.S. advisers are working in Saudi planning and operations centers, including on targeting, while Washington provides intelligence sharing, planning assistance and aerial refueling.

The fighting now centers on Bab al-Mandeb, the narrow waterway connecting the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden that has become a flashpoint threatening global commercial shipping. Iranian officials had previously presented Houthi control of the waterway as a strategic gain, with senior adviser Maj. Gen. Yahya Rahim Safavi describing Houthi control of Bab al-Mandeb as another step toward broader U.S. defeat in the region.

Long-term implications

The Mecca Pact’s activation marks a significant escalation in the regional response to Houthi aggression, but the path ahead remains uncertain. Even if government forces consolidate their coastal gains, the Houthis can still threaten shipping with drones and missiles launched from positions inland or elsewhere along Yemen’s coast. The pact’s success will depend on whether the three members can sustain military pressure while pursuing a long-term political solution—a challenge that has eluded multiple previous coalitions in Yemen’s protracted conflict.

Sources for this article include:

MiddleEastEye.net

Aljazeera.com

IranIntl.com