Arab News | Pakistan military vows to defend Saudi Arabia ‘to any extent’ amid Houthi attacks

JAKARTA: Pakistan will go “to any extent” to defend Saudi Arabia against attack, its military spokesperson said on Thursday, as escalating Houthi strikes test new collective-defense agreements linking the nuclear-armed South Asian state to the Kingdom.

The pledge follows a wave of recent missile and drone attacks by Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi movement on Saudi cities. Falling debris from an intercepted drone killed one person and injured two others in Taif on Thursday, while more than 80 people have been wounded in recent attacks.

The Saudi-led military coalition fighting the Houthis in Yemen also said this week it had intercepted a Houthi drone heading toward restricted airspace around Makkah, Islam’s holiest city, although the group denied targeting it. Separately, drones originating in Iraq damaged three pumping stations on Saudi Arabia’s East-West Pipeline, forcing the critical oil-export route to close temporarily. 

“Pakistan fully stands with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, both diplomatically and physically,” Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, director general of Inter-Services Public Relations, the military’s media wing, told Arab News in an interview on Thursday.

“And I would like to underscore here the word physically … We will go to any extent.”

Chaudhry said Pakistan’s commitment extended to the protection of Saudi Arabia and Islam’s two holiest sites in Makkah and Madinah.

 “There should be no doubt on that,” he said. “So, in a nutshell, we are there and we will continue to defend Kingdom of Saudi Arabia against any aggression.”

Chaudhry’s language was more forceful than Islamabad’s public formulation last week, when the Foreign Office said no Pakistani military response was then being discussed under the Makkah agreement — a three-nation pact under which an armed attack on Pakistan, Saudi Arabia or Türkiye is considered an attack on all — while adding that Pakistan would act “when time comes.”

The comments also come a little over a month after the Makkah Joint Defense Agreement was signed on Aug. 7. The pact is intended to strengthen collective deterrence among the three countries and built on a bilateral Strategic Mutual Defense Agreement signed by Pakistan and Saudi Arabia in September 2025, which similarly treats aggression against either country as an attack on both. 

Neither agreement’s full operational provisions have been made public, leaving unanswered questions about what kind of military response they require.

Pakistan already has a substantial military presence in Saudi Arabia. In May, Islamabad deployed around 8,000 troops, a squadron of JF-17 fighter jets, drones and an HQ-9 air-defense system to the Kingdom, Reuters reported at the time. 

“Our commitment to the Saudi security is unconditional,” Chaudhry said. “It is it stems from an emotive, a deep rooted, historical and unbreakable bond between the people of Pakistan, between the people of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, between the political and the military leadership of the both countries.”

Saudi Arabia has approached several allies, including Pakistan, Britain, France and Egypt, for support as repeated Houthi attacks put pressure on the Kingdom’s missile-defense supplies, the Associated Press reported this week. No country had publicly committed additional military assistance in response to the latest Saudi request at the time.

Asked whether Riyadh had since requested more Pakistani troops, air-defense systems or direct participation against the Houthis, Chaudhry did not disclose whether a new request had been made. 

He also did not explicitly confirm or rule out whether Pakistan’s nuclear deterrent fell within the defense guarantees. Islamabad has previously sent conflicting signals: Defense Minister Khawaja Asif said after the 2025 bilateral pact was signed that Pakistan’s nuclear capabilities could be made available to Saudi Arabia if needed but subsequently told Reuters that nuclear weapons were “not on the radar” of the agreement. 

“PEACEFUL OUTCOME”

The military assurance to Riyadh comes as Islamabad also pursues diplomatic efforts to prevent the regional confrontation from widening. Pakistan has sought to mediate the US-Iran war while also conveying a Saudi warning to Tehran to use its influence to halt Houthi attacks on the Kingdom.

Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir, Pakistan’s army chief and chief of defense forces, spoke by telephone on Wednesday with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who was visiting Beijing. Iranian state media said they discussed regional developments but did not disclose whether the Houthi attacks were specifically raised.

Asked about the call, Chaudhry said: “The politico-military leadership of Pakistan remains in continuous communication with the esteemed leadership of this Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on all these matters.”

He said Pakistan’s political leadership, Foreign Office and other officials were consulting regional governments to seek “a negotiated and peaceful outcome” to the wider crisis.

Pakistan also mediated months of negotiations between Washington and Tehran that produced the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding in June. The agreement established a framework for ending the war and resolving disputes over Iran’s nuclear program and regional security but subsequent negotiations have stalled amid renewed military escalation and disagreements over implementation.

Chaudhry described the Islamabad MoU as “a consensus document which we think provides the only real pathway forward for getting out of this complex military situation in which we are there.”

Asked whether Pakistan expected to bring Washington and Tehran back to negotiations soon, Chaudhry gave no timetable, saying Islamabad continued to search for common ground despite mistrust and what he described as “spoilers” and “detractors.”

“So that effort keeps on going,” he said.