By Naeema Saleem — SCN News
RIYADH/CAIRO, Sept. 25 — Pakistan and Türkiye are moving to coordinate military support for Saudi Arabia under their new collective-defence pact as Houthi missile and drone attacks intensify against the kingdom, putting the three-country security arrangement to its first major test while a parallel U.S. sanctions campaign further restricts Iran’s regional air links. Saudi, Pakistani and Turkish military chiefs are preparing urgent consultations on assistance to Riyadh after the three governments condemned attacks targeting Makkah and civilian and economic infrastructure.
The developments connect two rapidly moving fronts in the wider Middle East confrontation. Saudi Arabia is seeking greater support as Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis expand military operations and threaten Saudi cities, oil infrastructure and Red Sea routes. At the same time, Washington’s new secondary-sanctions strategy is beginning to isolate Iranian aviation, with Iraq joining the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkmenistan in restricting Iranian airline operations.
For Pakistan, the Saudi crisis is particularly significant because it is no longer simply a matter of diplomatic solidarity. The Makkah Joint Defence Agreement, signed by Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Türkiye on Aug. 7, stipulates that an attack against one member is considered an attack against all three. The pact was designed to strengthen collective deterrence and defence cooperation, and the current Houthi escalation is now forcing the partners to consider how that commitment operates during an actual security crisis.
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan, Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar and Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan met at the Saudi mission to the United Nations in New York and discussed arrangements for an urgent meeting of their chiefs of staff. They also reviewed work to establish the pact’s secretariat, committees and working groups.
The three ministers strongly condemned attacks on Makkah as well as civilian and economic facilities in Saudi Arabia and reaffirmed Riyadh’s right to take measures it considers necessary for self-defence under Article 51 of the UN Charter. They also stressed freedom of maritime navigation, respect for sovereignty and efforts toward regional de-escalation.
The language is important because Pakistan, Türkiye and Saudi Arabia have simultaneously been advocating diplomatic solutions to the wider regional conflicts. Their defence framework explicitly combines collective deterrence with support for restraint and peaceful settlement, meaning the current consultations will test how the alliance balances those two objectives when one of its members is under repeated missile and drone attack.
The military pressure increased sharply this week. Saudi authorities said their air defences intercepted six Houthi ballistic missiles on Thursday, including attempted strikes toward Taif and the strategically important Red Sea energy centre of Yanbu. The Houthis separately claimed missile and drone attacks against Riyadh and Saudi Aramco facilities in Yanbu.
Yanbu has assumed greater strategic importance because Saudi Arabia has relied on its Red Sea infrastructure and East-West pipeline to reduce dependence on exports through the Strait of Hormuz during the U.S.-Iran conflict. Houthi advances and attacks near that infrastructure therefore threaten not only Saudi security but one of the principal alternative routes available for Gulf energy supplies when Hormuz is disrupted.
The Houthis have also transformed their position inside Yemen. Their rapid advance along the Red Sea coast and toward strategic highlands has increased pressure on Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces and brought the conflict closer to infrastructure and shipping routes critical to the global economy. The group’s expanding reach around the Bab al-Mandab has intensified concern over commercial navigation between the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.
Riyadh’s response has now acquired a broader domestic dimension. Saudi Arabia’s Grand Mufti Sheikh Saleh al-Fawzan urged troops stationed on the front lines to remain vigilant and prepared to sacrifice their lives in defence of the kingdom, an unusually forceful intervention from the country’s highest religious authority as attacks intensify.
Pakistan and Türkiye had already joined Egypt earlier this week in affirming Saudi Arabia’s right to defend itself under international law. Their foreign ministers, meeting on the sidelines of UNGA81, also expressed concern over the regional conflicts, backed Yemen’s internationally recognised government and said diplomacy remained the only sustainable path toward resolving the crisis.
The latest trilateral consultations go further because they are taking place specifically under the Makkah defence framework. The alliance held its first Strategic Political and Defence Committee meeting in Istanbul on Aug. 31, attended by the three countries’ foreign and defence ministers and senior military commanders. They agreed to establish a permanent secretariat in Saudi Arabia, initially led for three years by a Pakistani secretary-general, and to deepen military cooperation, defence-industry links and joint technology development.
The agreement therefore already contains institutional machinery through which military coordination can take place. What has not yet been publicly specified is the form of support Saudi Arabia may seek during the current Houthi confrontation. The statement announcing the urgent military meeting did not say whether discussions would involve air defence, intelligence, logistics, operational support or other measures.
That distinction is important. An urgent chiefs-of-staff meeting under a collective-defence pact represents a significant escalation in coordination, but it should not by itself be interpreted as confirmation that Pakistani or Turkish forces will enter combat in Yemen. No such deployment was announced in the official accounts of the consultations.
While Saudi Arabia strengthens its defensive coalition, pressure on Iran is growing through a very different mechanism.
Washington has shifted toward wider use of secondary sanctions, threatening foreign airports, fuel suppliers and other service providers with exclusion from the U.S. financial system if they continue doing business with targeted Iranian airlines. Iranian carriers were barred from the UAE and Oman on Thursday, marking the first major practical effect of the new policy.
The restrictions broadened further on Friday. Iraq suspended Iranian flights at Baghdad, Najaf, Erbil and Sulaimaniyah, while the UAE had already halted all flights operated by Iranian airlines until further notice. Oman, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkmenistan have also restricted Iranian air access, tightening Tehran’s connections with neighbouring states.
The UAE decision is especially consequential because Dubai has been one of the most important international destinations for Iranian travellers and businesses, with multiple daily services and a large Iranian community. The sanctions do not merely target aircraft: Washington is threatening consequences for companies providing fuel, landing services, ticketing and other assistance required for Iranian carriers to operate abroad.
Not all Iranian international aviation has stopped. Iranian carriers continue to retain some routes to countries including China, Armenia and Türkiye, illustrating that Washington has not achieved a complete aviation blockade. But the growing list of neighbouring countries restricting services increases the economic and logistical pressure on Tehran.
Iran has reacted angrily. Mohammad Mokhber, an adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, warned on Friday that if Iranian aircraft cannot fly or receive airport services, other countries in the region should not expect to do so either. He did not explain what measures Tehran might take to enforce that threat.
The aviation squeeze comes while Iran is already under pressure from a U.S. maritime blockade and months of war with the United States and Israel. If sustained, restrictions on commercial aviation could deepen Iran’s economic isolation even without another major expansion of direct military operations.
Tehran, however, has sought to separate itself publicly from the Houthi offensive. The degree of Iranian operational control over the Yemeni movement remains contested: the Houthis developed from a local Yemeni insurgency and have their own political and military objectives, while Iran has long supported the group. Regional, Yemeni and Iranian sources cited in current reporting have described Iranian Revolutionary Guard involvement in the Houthis’ recent Red Sea advance.
The distinction matters diplomatically because Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has simultaneously been signalling interest in ending the conflict with Washington. He said this week that Iran remains prepared to move forward with the earlier framework negotiated with the United States and argued that Washington must decide whether it wants to end the war.
That creates an increasingly complicated regional picture. Iran is under expanding economic and aviation pressure while indicating willingness to negotiate with Washington. At the same time, an Iran-aligned armed movement in Yemen is escalating attacks against Saudi Arabia, prompting Pakistan and Türkiye to activate consultations under a collective-defence framework.
Energy markets are watching both tracks closely. Oil prices fell more than 1% on Friday as expectations of possible U.S.-Iran diplomacy outweighed immediate concerns about Houthi attacks, but strikes on Saudi energy infrastructure and continued threats to Hormuz and Bab al-Mandab leave significant risks to global supplies.
For Islamabad, the crisis now presents both a defence and diplomatic challenge. Pakistan has been trying to mediate between Washington and Tehran and has repeatedly called for de-escalation, while its new pact with Saudi Arabia and Türkiye creates explicit collective-security commitments if a member state comes under attack. The government will therefore have to pursue mediation with Iran while simultaneously participating in decisions over how to support Saudi Arabia against the Houthis.
The next military consultations will be the clearest indication yet of how the Makkah pact works in practice. The three countries have already created a political and institutional framework; Houthi attacks are now forcing them to consider what collective deterrence means during an active confrontation.
The broader regional picture is moving in two directions at once. Pakistan and Türkiye are closing ranks with Saudi Arabia as attacks on the kingdom intensify, while U.S. sanctions are progressively narrowing Iran’s civilian aviation links. At the same time, Tehran is signalling that diplomacy remains possible.
For the moment, no single development amounts to a decisive shift in the war. But together they show the pressure tightening around its major actors: Saudi Arabia is drawing more heavily on its new defence partners, Iran is becoming more economically and geographically constrained, and the conflict emanating from Yemen is increasingly intersecting with the wider U.S.-Iran confrontation.