Pakistan on Friday said an emergency meeting of the strategic political defence committee under the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement will be held in Riyadh next week, with the agenda set to include Houthi attacks in Saudi Arabia and political engagement with the Iran-backed group.Pakistan foreign minister Ishaq Dar said the meeting would discuss pursuing political engagement with the Houthis instead of kinetic action, news agency Reuters reported.The meeting will bring together officials under the defence pact signed by Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey in August.Dar also said that over 6 countries were keen to join the pact. He added that countries seeking to join the agreement would have to wait until the pact becomes fully operational, a process that could take up to a year. “It won’t be possible to entertain new requests to join until the pact is fully operational,” he said.
Mecca pact faces 1st major test
The emergency meeting comes after a fresh wave of Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia, putting the newly signed defence arrangement under an early test.Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan signed the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement on August 7 to strengthen collective deterrence and defence cooperation. Under the pact, an armed attack on any one of the three countries is to be treated as an attack on all three.The three countries began putting the pact’s mechanisms in place soon after. Their foreign and defence ministers and military chiefs met in Istanbul on August 31 for the first meeting of the Strategic Political and Defence Committee, where they agreed to establish a secretariat in Saudi Arabia and expand military cooperation.The planned Riyadh meeting was discussed after the foreign ministers of the three countries met in New York on Thursday. Saudi foreign minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan, Dar and Turkish foreign minister Hakan Fidan discussed the Houthi attacks and possible steps under the agreement.The ministers also condemned attacks on Mecca and civilian and economic facilities in Saudi Arabia, while backing Riyadh’s right to self-defence under Article 51 of the UN Charter.