ANKARA/ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has delivered a Saudi warning to Iran to rein in its Yemeni Houthi allies after they stepped up attacks on the kingdom, in a coordinated effort to prevent the crisis from spiralling, Saudi, Pakistani and Iranian sources said.
The Houthis attacked the southern Saudi cities of Abha, Khamis Mushait and Jazan with ballistic missiles and drones on Wednesday, after striking an airbase in Khamis Mushait and oil infrastructure in nearby cities on Tuesday, wounding 73 people.
Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said on Wednesday that Saudi warplanes carried out 54 airstrikes across various Yemeni provinces over the past 12 hours, adding that they would “not go unanswered and unpunished”.
Pakistan’s warning to Iran carries significant weight because of its defence pact with Saudi Arabia and Turkey.
While officials in Islamabad stressed any military role would be confined to defending Saudi territory, Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif said attacks spilling into the kingdom could trigger a joint security arrangement involving Riyadh, Ankara and Islamabad.
Speaking Geo News programme “Aaj Shahzeb Khanzada Kay Saath”, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif warned that Houthi attacks on Saudi territory would invoke the Makkah Defence Alliance.
“Under the trilateral agreement, any aggression against any of the three [countries] is regarded as an aggression against all. There is no ambiguity about that,” he said.
The defence minister said that unprovoked aggression or the spillover from Yemen into Saudi Arabia “will definitely” operationalise the Makkah Defence Alliance. “There should be no doubt about it. We are bound by the terms and conditions of this pact, and we will honour them in case there is a need,” he added.
However, Asif said that Islamabad hoped the situation would be brought under control and eventually subside.
On Pakistan’s mediation efforts between the US and Iran, the defence minister said that Islamabad’s efforts to broker peace were still ongoing. He said that Pakistan wanted an environment that could help reduce tensions in the region. “There are contacts, even if they are indirect.”
While Asif warned that Israel would want the Iran-US conflict to continue, he expressed optimism about international pressure contributing to peace in the region. “Peace will be established in the region and Israel will have to pay the price,” Asif said.
The Pakistani defence ministry, foreign ministry and the military did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Pakistan’s intervention, after years of balancing ties with Saudi Arabia and Iran, has underscored the seriousness of the Houthi attacks. The message to Tehran is clear: rein in the Houthis or risk turning a proxy conflict into a broader regional security crisis, the sources said.
A senior regional diplomat said Pakistan had conveyed the message to Iran over the past 24 hours, urging Tehran to use its influence to halt Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia.
A senior Iranian official confirmed that Pakistan conveyed the message to Tehran on Tuesday and Tehran’s response was that “Iran does not control the Houthis”.
However, two Iranian sources said Tehran had told the Houthis last week to carry out attacks on Saudi Arabia. Tehran promised additional funding and weapons, they said, while several Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commanders had travelled to Yemen to help coordinate the attacks.
The regional diplomat said Islamabad was seeking to restrain the Houthis before the escalation reached a point where Riyadh could press Pakistan to play a more active role in defending it.
“Pakistan has an agreement with Saudi Arabia, but I am hopeful the situation will not reach the point where Pakistan has to practically step in,” the diplomat told Reuters. “It will pursue a diplomatic solution for now.”
The Pakistani source said Saudi officials had met senior Pakistani and Turkish military representatives in Riyadh to coordinate their response. The three countries agreed that their troops would not enter Yemen and that any response would be launched from Saudi territory, the source added.
A second Pakistani source said no decision had been made to join retaliatory strikes, stressing that its military pact with Riyadh was defensive and limited to protecting Saudi territory. Pakistani forces could provide military, technical, ground or air support within Saudi Arabia, but would not take part in combat operations on foreign soil, the source said.
The pressure campaign waged by Iran and the Houthis could have the opposite effect to that intended by Tehran, the regional diplomat said.
By targeting Gulf security in a bid to pressure Washington over its blockade of Iranian ports, Tehran risks driving Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Turkey and other US-aligned states into closer security coordination rather than fracturing their ties.
Another regional source said Saudi Arabia’s military response would remain focused on the Houthis rather than Iran itself. Nor do Saudi officials believe Houthi attacks will achieve Tehran’s broader objective of ending the US blockade.
Riyadh is not expected to press Washington to lift the blockade, that source said, stressing that Trump believes sustained economic coercion is the most effective pathway to negotiations.
“The question is how much pain Iran can absorb, and for how long,” the source said. “Trump does not want a military solution. He wants to squeeze them through the blockade.”
