Saudi Arabia, Türkiye and Pakistan coordinate defense response as Houthi attacks intensify

• Saudi Arabia, Türkiye and Pakistan arrange urgent high-level defense talks
• Iran distances itself from Houthi operations while reviewing peace proposals

RIYADH/CAIRO: Saudi Arabia, Türkiye and Pakistan are preparing an urgent senior-level meeting under the Makkah Joint Defense Agreement to discuss military support for Riyadh amid attacks by Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi movement.

The Houthis have struck the UN-recognized Yemeni government and repeatedly fired missiles and drones into Saudi Arabia, disrupting oil exports from the world’s largest energy producer as the conflict expanded following US and Israeli strikes on Iran in February.

Houthi officials said they launched dozens of missiles and drones at Saudi targets on Thursday. Saudi authorities said they intercepted six ballistic missiles fired by the group.

Saudi Arabia issued emergency alerts in several areas, including Makkah, Jeddah and Yanbu, the Kingdom’s main Red Sea oil port.

The country’s top religious authority urged soldiers to prepare to sacrifice their lives to fight the Houthis until the group is removed from power, according to a statement carried by the Saudi state news agency.

Regional defense talks

During the fighting, the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Türkiye met under the Makkah Joint Defense Agreement, the Saudi Foreign Ministry said. They condemned attacks on Makkah and other civilian sites while reaffirming Saudi Arabia’s right to defend itself.

“The ministers also discussed arrangements for an urgent meeting of the three countries’ chiefs of staff to explore ways of supporting Saudi Arabia under the Makkah Joint Defense Agreement, which states that an attack on any one party constitutes an attack on all parties,” the ministry said.

The announcement followed an interview in which Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian sought to separate Tehran from the Houthi advance in Yemen.

“The Houthis are responsible for their own actions,” Pezeshkian told Fox News’s “Special Report with Bret Baier,” a day after addressing the UN General Assembly in New York.

Iran seeks distance from Houthi campaign

Pezeshkian’s interview and UN appearance came during a pause in direct US-Iranian combat and a brief diplomatic effort in New York, with Qatar acting as an intermediary between the parties.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi told reporters that Tehran had submitted a proposal to the United States through intermediaries. Under the plan, the Strait of Hormuz would reopen if Iran’s conditions were met.

The proposal calls for hostilities to end across the region, including in Lebanon, within seven days. In return, Washington would lift its blockade of Iranian ports, release frozen Iranian funds and waive oil sanctions, Araqchi said.

“The Strait of Hormuz will reopen on the final day,” he said, adding that negotiations over other issues, including Iran’s nuclear program, would begin afterward.

A senior Iranian official told Reuters on Wednesday that Tehran was reviewing Washington’s response to its peace proposals.

War disrupts regional energy flows

The conflict, launched by US President Donald Trump alongside Israel in February, has killed thousands of people and disrupted global energy supplies, driving up oil prices.

Although the US and Iran have largely halted direct combat, Tehran’s regional allies remain active. Hezbollah is confronting Israel in Lebanon, while the Houthis continue their advance in Yemen.

Iran and its allies have placed significant pressure on oil exports from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states. Houthi attacks have disrupted shipping near the mouth of the Red Sea, while Iran has effectively restricted tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a route through which 20 percent of global oil exports previously passed.

An attack by Iran-backed militias in Iraq also temporarily disabled Saudi Arabia’s East-West Pipeline.

Security experts have debated the extent of Iran’s direct influence over the Houthis, a Shiite Islamist movement that evolved from a local insurgency into a powerful armed force controlling much of northern Yemen.

However, Yemeni government, Iranian and regional sources have said the Houthi advance along Yemen’s Red Sea coast was conducted with direct guidance from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC.

As the US-Israeli campaign against Iran has remained largely stalemated on the battlefield for months, Washington has announced a shift toward expanding financial sanctions by targeting third-country companies that do business with Iranian firms. The policy, known as secondary sanctions, has already affected Iranian airlines.

On Thursday, airlines from Iran were barred from neighboring countries including the UAE and Oman following the new US sanctions, marking the first major impact of the policy shift.

A sustained flight ban could further isolate Iran and worsen an economic crisis already intensified by a US naval blockade of its ports.

“We are living in an open-air prison,” a retired teacher in Tehran told Reuters by text message, requesting anonymity.

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