A day after the Houthis attempted what Saudi Arabia described as a drone attack on the holy city of Mecca, Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif on Wednesday said that it is fully prepared to fulfil its obligations under the Mecca agreement.’
After the attempted attack on Mecca, Islamabad sent a word of ‘condemnation’ over Houthis making the holy site a possible target.
While speaking to Geo News on Wednesday, he said, the “Makkah Agreement applies to us, and we will fulfil our duty”. He said that Pakistan does not need to be tied by an agreement to protect the holy sites, and that safeguarding them was a duty. “If Makkah is attacked, there is no need for an agreement to protect it,” he said. The Pakistani minister said that there was “absolutely no ambiguity” about the application of the Mecca defence pact but refused to open up about the details of its defence or military strategy. He said that Pakistan had conveyed Saudi Arabia’s message to Iran over Houthi attacks in the region and claimed that Iran would not “open another front” while already being embroiled in a conflict. In a post on X, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said he “condemns in the strongest possible terms the dastardly and heinous attempted drone attack against the Holy Site of Makkah Al-Mukarramah.”
