Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said on Friday that an emergency meeting of the Strategic Political and Defence Committee under the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement will be held in Riyadh next week, with the agenda set to include Houthi attacks and a shift toward political engagement.
The Mecca Joint Defence Agreement, signed on August 7 by Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, treats an armed attack on one of the three nations as an attack on all. The pact’s early weeks saw the establishment of a secretariat in Saudi Arabia and an expansion of military cooperation, after the ministers and chiefs first convened in Istanbul on August 31.
A fresh wave of Houthi missile and drone strikes has hit Saudi infrastructure and civilian sites, including oil facilities and airports, testing the pact’s deterrence clause. These attacks have intensified pressure on the three signatories to respond.
The Riyadh meeting was prompted by a New York gathering where Saudi FM Prince Faisal bin Farhan, Dar and Turkish FM Hakan Fidan condemned the strikes and backed Riyadh’s right to self‑defence under Article 51 of the UN Charter. They also discussed how the pact could address the Houthi threat through political channels.
Dar added that more than six countries are keen to join the pact, but new members can only be admitted once the agreement is fully operational, a process that could take up to a year. The upcoming meeting is expected to decide whether the pact will pursue diplomatic engagement with the Houthis as a first step, and whether it will open the door to additional partners.