Houthi official Mohammed Al-Bukhaiti has warned that any Pakistani or Turkish deployment in support of Saudi Arabia under the Mecca pact would be met with retaliation delivered, in his words, “with an iron fist”. He added that most people in Turkey and Pakistan sympathise with the humanitarian plight of Yemen, an attempt to separate governments from their publics.
The threat arrived after the Houthis had shown they could reach Saudi targets. In early September the group fired a barrage of missiles at the kingdom, and strikes on 8 September reportedly injured at least 73 civilians. Reuters released a satellite image that appeared to show damage at King Khalid air base, which the Houthis said they had attacked that day. The UN Security Council condemned the continued attacks and warned of risks to civilian and energy infrastructure. It was in that atmosphere that Defence Minister Khawaja Asif said the Mecca agreement would become operational if the conflict spilled into the kingdom. The pact had been signed in August, shortly before the Houthis launched the offensive in Yemen that has included attacks on Saudi targets.
The Houthi position has varied with the audience. Houthi officials dismissed the agreement as cosmetic when it was signed, and since activation their commentary has largely assumed that Pakistan and Turkey will not join the war directly. The threat may be aimed at decision-makers in Islamabad and Ankara, and the dismissal at the Houthis’ own supporters.
Pakistan has answered only indirectly. On 2 October its military said its top commanders strongly condemned the Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia and affirmed their commitment to the security of Islam’s holy sites, Reuters reported. On 5 October, Asif said Pakistan’s role was supportive, with reconnaissance and no combat. Pakistan and Turkey were in the operational area, he said, while only Saudi forces were fighting.
Pakistan’s security establishment has other pressures, notably the Pakistani Taliban, but no Pakistani official has discussed a Houthi strike on Pakistani territory as a scenario. The evidence on reach concerns Saudi Arabia, not Pakistan. On 5 October, the Houthis claimed to have attacked King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh and the Aramco refinery at Rabigh.
Tehran has treated the Houthi warnings as news without adopting them as policy. Iranian state media gave extensive coverage to Houthi statements aimed at Turkey and Pakistan, Iran International reported. Iran’s foreign ministry, through spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei, confined itself on 4 October to the hope that reports of a Pakistani deployment for war in Yemen were untrue.
The joint statement of 5 October offered no numbers or equipment lists. Until it does, the Houthi threat and Pakistan’s answer to it rest on the same unreported detail: the size of the forces and where they will be placed.
