Khawaja Asif – (Staff Reporter/Web Desk) – Defence Minister Khawaja Asif has confirmed that Pakistan and Turkiye are helping Saudi Arabia in its anti-Houthi operations in Yemen.
He shared this on Monday while speaking on the Geo News programme “Aaj Shahzeb Khanzada Kay Sath”.
Asif said both Pakistan and Turkiye have a presence in the region. However, he made it clear that the army doing the fighting belongs to Saudi Arabia.
“We are here and providing any assistance they need,” he said.
According to the minister, the Pakistani and Turkish militaries are playing a supporting role. Their work includes reconnaissance and a few other tasks.
He said Saudi forces are the ones fighting on the ground. They are also taking back areas that were lost earlier.
Asif added that the Yemeni government is at an advantage right now. He said the Houthi group has pulled back from several areas it seized in Yemen last month.
His comments came after an emergency meeting of the Makkah Joint Defence Agreement (MJDA) in Riyadh. Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkiye agreed to ensure the rapid deployment of agreed military forces and capabilities in Saudi Arabia.
The Foreign Office said the plan will be carried out under approved arrangements. It will also follow the national laws of all three countries.
The defence minister explained that the main goal of Monday’s meeting was to give the alliance a clear structure. This included choosing a secretary-general for the defence pact.
Lieutenant General Nauman Mahmood (retd) of Pakistan was named the first secretary-general of the MJDA. He will serve a three-year term.
The three countries want to make their joint response stronger against threats facing the kingdom.
The alliance is based on the Makkah trilateral agreement, which Islamabad, Riyadh and Ankara signed on August 7. It covers collective security and defence cooperation.
Under the pact, an armed attack on any one of the three countries is treated as an attack on all three.
Meanwhile, the Saudi-led coalition said late on Monday that its naval forces carried out a military operation in Hodeidah. This is a Red Sea governorate of Yemen.
Yemeni government forces had already taken some key positions. One of them is an airstrip in the Dhubab district, at the mouth of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
The Houthis had captured that area last month. The move sent shock waves through energy markets, since the strait is an important sea route.
For now, Asif’s remarks offer one of the clearest public explanations of what Pakistan is doing in the region. He stressed that Pakistan is helping, but Saudi Arabia is the one leading the fight.
The coming days will show how fast the agreed forces are deployed and how the situation changes in Yemen.
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