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Pakistan caught between Saudi defense pact and Iran mediation as Houthi attacks escalate
Days after major Houthi strikes on Saudi oil infrastructure, Islamabad warns Tehran while insisting it won't activate its new trilateral defense agreement—yet the balance grows harder to maintain.
Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis launched a wave of attacks on southwestern Saudi Arabia on September 8, hitting oil facilities and military sites near the cities of Khamis Mushait, Abha, Jizan and Najran. The strikes wounded 73 civilians and sparked fires at energy infrastructure, marking the most serious escalation since a UN-brokered truce collapsed in July. The attacks immediately tested Pakistan's newly signed Mecca Joint Defence Agreement with Saudi Arabia and Turkey, concluded just a month earlier on August 7. Under the pact, an armed attack on any member is considered an attack on all three. Pakistan responded with a carefully calibrated dual approach. Pakistani officials delivered a warning to Iran to rein in the Houthis, while publicly insisting no military response was under discussion. Defence Minister Khawaja Asif said the defence pact "will definitely" be activated if Houthi attacks continue, but Foreign Office spokesman Sajjad Haider Khan clarified Thursday that Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey were still consolidating the alliance and had not yet operationalized it. Pakistan maintained that it had "consistently opposed escalation and advocated restraint, dialogue and diplomacy." For the past year, Pakistan has played a delicate dual role: serving as Riyadh's strategic defense partner while acting as Washington's backchannel to Tehran. That balance is now under strain. Pakistani officials privately acknowledge they are trying to "keep a low profile" in the Saudi-Houthi conflict because "Pakistan's own stakes are high" and it "does not want to spoil relations with Iran." Iran's response illustrates the tension. Publicly, Iranian officials praised Pakistan's mediation efforts and said they do not view the defence pact as a threat. Privately, however, three Iranian sources told Reuters that Pakistan lacks the means to deliver results or the diplomatic experience of negotiators like Qatar. Iran also denies it fully controls the Houthis, though Pakistani and Saudi officials believe Tehran has significant leverage over the group. Pakistan faces the prospect that deeper military involvement—beyond messaging and defense support within Saudi borders—could transform it from mediator into combatant, exposing it to Iranian retaliation and jeopardizing its own interests in the region.