What happened
Pakistan’s Foreign Office said on Thursday 10 September 2026 that the Makkah joint defence agreement with Saudi Arabia and Türkiye is defensive in nature and that no military response to Houthi attacks on the kingdom is currently under discussion. Spokesperson Sajjad Haider Khan was speaking at his first weekly briefing, according to The Express Tribune.
Asked whether Pakistan was considering strikes on Houthi positions in Yemen, Khan called the scenario hypothetical. He said Pakistan would act under the terms of the pact when the time came, but that there was nothing under discussion at present, the Tribune reported. Reuters quoted him as saying: “There is no such thing under discussion right now.”
Khan described the agreement as an umbrella framework meant purely for defensive purposes and for regional stability. The three signatories, he said, still have to build institutional mechanisms and command structures before it can operate fully.
No expansion for now
The spokesman also said that widening the alliance was not under discussion until the current members had consolidated their organisation. The Tribune said this covered possible additions such as Egypt, Algeria or even Iran. Reuters likewise reported that Khan said there were no plans to expand.
Why it matters
The agreement was signed the previous month and, as Reuters described it, treats an armed attack on any one of the three countries as an attack on all three. Pakistan had signed the Makkah joint defence agreement with Saudi Arabia and Türkiye on 7 August, and the prime minister had since called the pact defensive.
The clarification came after Houthi strikes on Saudi cities and energy infrastructure that week, which Reuters said had turned Yemen into a second front in the region. Defence Minister Khawaja Asif had said the pact could be activated if the Houthi conflict spilled into Saudi Arabia, which fuelled speculation about Pakistani involvement, according to the Tribune. The Foreign Office did not suggest that was imminent.
Khan said Pakistan condemned the attacks on Saudi sites including Abha, Khamis Mushait, Jazan and Najran, and supports international efforts to end the Yemen conflict. Pakistani personnel, he said, were already in the kingdom for training and logistics under existing bilateral cooperation. Iran had earlier downplayed the pact after talks with Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, and Reuters noted that Islamabad is also mediating between the United States and Iran.
What remains unclear
Pakistan has not said what would trigger the pact in practice or what form any assistance would take. The command structures that Khan said were still to be built will determine how quickly the three countries could act together. The Foreign Office has also not said when, or whether, it would revisit the question of new members.
