PAKISTAN PM CALLS HOUTHI ATTACK ON MECCA A RED LINE

Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif told the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Friday that any threat to the Muslim holy cities of Mecca and Medina represented a "red line that must never be crossed." Sharif condemned recent Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia as "deplorable" and said an attempted drone attack on Mecca had "outraged Muslims across the globe." Saudi Arabia has accused the Houthis of targeting Mecca with a drone that was subsequently downed, with one report describing it as the first such accusation since 2017. The Houthis have denied targeting the city, with one report quoting the group dismissing the claim as a "heinous lie."

Last month, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkiye signed a trilateral pact known as the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement, under which an attack on any one member would be treated as an attack on all three. Pakistan and Turkiye have not become directly involved in Saudi Arabia's ongoing confrontation with the Houthis, an Iran-aligned group based in Yemen. Military chiefs from the three countries met in Riyadh on Friday, according to the Pakistani military, discussing intelligence sharing and military coordination while reviewing threats facing Saudi Arabia. The chiefs reaffirmed a commitment to collective defence and pledged to turn the agreement's commitments into practical cooperation, the Pakistani military said.

It remains unclear what support, if any, Pakistan and Turkiye might provide to Saudi Arabia. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in a written interview published by an American outlet on Friday, said support could include "intelligence, logistics or ammunition, with more extensive military assistance possible depending on the scale of the threat." In his UN address, Sharif also referred to the US-Israeli military action against Iran launched in late February and to Pakistan's role as a co-mediator in that matter. No further details on the scope of any trilateral military response have been confirmed.