Published On 5 Oct 2026
The Mecca Alliance says it has agreed to trigger collective deterrence measures in response to “heinous attacks” by Yemen’s Houthi group against Saudi Arabia.
In a statement on Monday, the Pakistani Foreign Ministry said Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkiye had decided to “provide the agreed military forces and capabilities and ensure their rapid deployment” to the kingdom.
Saudi Arabia’s Defence Minister, Khalid bin Salman, said the member countries agreed to trigger the deployment in response “to the attacks and all those responsible for them”.
The announcement comes as the Saudi-backed Yemeni government has launched a counteroffensive to push the Iran-aligned Houthis back from territory captured last month.
The agreement was reached during an emergency meeting of the Strategic Political and Defence Committee under the three countries’ Mecca Alliance in Riyadh.
The mutual defence pact was signed in August, shortly before the Houthis launched their offensive in Yemen, which has included attacks against Saudi targets. Questions as to whether Islamabad and Ankara would agree to trigger the agreement have persisted since.
However, with hostilities increasing in Yemen, the committee agreed to “move immediately” to implement the collective defence measures to “ensure their rapid deployment in the Kingdom,” the joint statement reads.
The defence commitments will be executed under “approved arrangements” and the laws of the three countries, the statement added.
The Mecca Defence Alliance emerged as a response to intensifying regional conflicts, including the war by the United States and Israel on Iran.
The agreement to form the new alliance was signed by the three countries on August 7. It declares that an attack on any one of the three states will be treated as an attack on all – mirroring a key NATO stipulation.
While steps to institutionalise the Mecca Alliance followed, the agreement did not initially give details on the military or defence obligations of each country.
Following a barrage of missiles launched by the Houthis toward Saudi Arabia in early September, Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif said any attack on the kingdom could trigger the agreement.
“If there is unprovoked aggression, or a spillover of whatever is happening in Yemen into Saudi Arabia, definitely the Mecca agreement will become operational,” he told the Pakistani media outlet Geo News.
However, no action has been taken until now, with analysts noting that Pakistan and Turkiye remain keen to continue acting as mediators of the US-Iran conflict.
The three members of the alliance combined have nearly 1.4 million active troops, about 3,400 military aircraft, 6,000 tanks and more than 340 naval assets, according to the 2026 Global Firepower Index.
Source: www.aljazeera.com
