Pakistan is likely to carry out airstrikes against Yemen’s Ansar Allah, also known as the Houthis, at Saudi Arabia’s request, Türkiye Today reported on Wednesday, citing Pakistani sources.
The report said that one of the goals of the potential military action would be to “clear the Houthis” from northern Yemen’s Saada province, which would be an extremely tall order since the region is where Ansar Allah began as a political movement and the historic heartland of Yemen’s Zaydi Shia Muslims, the religious community from which the movement emerged.
Pakistani Defense Minister Khawaja Asif has also said publicly that the Ansar Allah attacks on Saudi Arabia could trigger the new Mecca defense pact, a three-way military agreement between Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey that was signed last month.
“If there is unprovoked aggression, or a spillover of whatever is happening in Yemen into Saudi Arabia, definitely the Mecca agreement will become operational,” Asif told Geo News on Tuesday night, according to Al Jazeera.
“There should be no doubt about that. We are bound by the terms and conditions of this pact, and … we will honor them in case there is a need,” Asif added.
While Asif presented the attacks as “unprovoked aggression,” the renewed war between the Saudis and the Houthis began following Saudi Arabia’s July 13 strikes on the Sanaa International Airport, which were conducted to enforce a long-standing blockade that was eased slightly by a 2022 ceasefire deal but not fully lifted.
Following the strikes, Ansar Allah announced a blockade on Saudi shipping in the Red Sea, began targeting tankers and oil infrastructure inside Saudi Arabia, and heavy fighting between the Houthis and Saudi-backed forces broke out on the ground in Yemen. Ansar Allah launched a heavy wave of missile and drone attacks on Saudi Arabia on Tuesday following significant Saudi strikes across Yemen, which included the bombing of a prison in al-Jawf, Yemen.
