Pakistan and Turkiye Deploy Forces to Saudi Arabia as Mecca Pact Against Houthis Takes Effect

The defence agreement signed by Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkiye in Mecca in August has formally moved from paper to practice, after the pact's top committee convened an emergency session in Riyadh on Monday and agreed to activate its collective deterrence provisions. Under the decision, Pakistani and Turkish forces are to be deployed to the kingdom to support Saudi Arabia as it backs a military offensive against Yemen's Houthis, according to a joint statement distributed by Pakistan's Foreign Office.

The committee said it had resolved to proceed immediately with the practical implementation of the collective defence commitments, and to arrange the agreed military forces and capabilities for rapid deployment inside the kingdom, in line with approved arrangements and the domestic legislation of each party. No details were released about the size of the contingent or the specific roles the forces would play, leaving considerable ambiguity about the scope of the mission.

The move comes as Saudi-led coalition spokesperson Major General Turki al-Malki confirmed that 100 fighter jets are supporting a counteroffensive by Yemeni government forces aimed at recapturing territory that the Houthis seized last month. That campaign, and the reported Houthi capture of Yemen's Red Sea coastline and a key shipping route, has sharply raised the stakes for Riyadh and its partners.

Hours after the Riyadh meeting, Pakistan's Defence Minister Khawaja Asif said Pakistani personnel were already contributing. Speaking to Geo News from the Saudi capital on Monday night, he described the Turkish and Pakistani role as supportive in nature, noting that Islamabad is involved in reconnaissance and similar tasks while actual combat operations are being carried out by Saudi forces, who he said are the ones retaking the contested areas.

That framing places Pakistan in a defensive posture alongside a Saudi offensive, a position that analysts say leaves an unresolved question: how long Islamabad can avoid being drawn into direct fighting. The distinction matters domestically in Pakistan, where successive governments have sought to present deployments to the Gulf as protective and non-combat in character, even when they occur in proximity to active hostilities.

Pakistan's military footprint in Saudi Arabia is far from new. Its personnel have trained Saudi forces since 1967, and a 1982 agreement formalised the deputation of Pakistani troops to the kingdom. A declassified CIA assessment from June 1985 estimated that between 13,000 and 14,000 Pakistanis were serving in the Saudi army at that time, including an armoured brigade stationed at Tabuk. During the 1990-91 Gulf War, Pakistan also dispatched a substantial contingent to the kingdom for defensive duties.

More recently, Islamabad and Riyadh signed a Strategic Mutual Defence Agreement in September 2025, which treats aggression against either state as aggression against both. In April, Riyadh confirmed that a Pakistani force, including fighter and support aircraft, had arrived at King Abdulaziz airbase in the Eastern Province. Pakistan has never publicly disclosed the total number of its troops stationed in the kingdom.

In September, Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, director general of the military's media wing, Inter-Services Public Relations, told the Saudi outlet Arab News that Pakistani forces were already deployed to protect the kingdom and its holy sites. He emphasised the word "physically," adding that Pakistan would go to any extent in fulfilling that role. ISPR did not respond to a request for comment on the deployment agreed in Riyadh.

On Tuesday, Pakistan's Ministry of Information said in a post on X that the country's commitment to the security of the holy sites and the kingdom was not negotiable, while stressing that operational details of the collective deterrence arrangement would remain confidential and should not be subject to media speculation.

Turkiye's contribution is less clear. Although Asif said Turkish forces were also present, Ankara has not publicly confirmed any deployment. Gokhan Ereli, an international relations expert at Istanbul's Ibn Haldun University, said there is no publicly acknowledged standing Turkish deployment in Saudi Arabia. He noted that under Article 92 of Turkiye's constitution, the authority to send troops abroad rests with parliament, which has yet to ratify the Mecca pact, raising questions about the legal basis for any Turkish role.

Dania Thafer, executive director of the Gulf International Forum, said Riyadh wants the Mecca Pact to carry real weight rather than remain a political declaration. She said Saudi Arabia is trying to convert the agreement into a genuine deterrent, and that for now Riyadh mainly wants Pakistan and Turkiye to help defend Saudi territory and reinforce its air and missile defences, sending the message that another attack is no longer purely a Saudi-Houthi matter. The Houthis have struck multiple Saudi cities and facilities, including the East West Pipeline that Riyadh has relied on to export oil amid Iranian restrictions on transit through the Strait of Hormuz during the ongoing war waged by the United States.

With the pact now operational, the central uncertainty is how far Islamabad and Ankara are prepared to go. Pakistan's public messaging continues to stress a defensive, supporting role, while Saudi operations against the Houthis intensify. Whether that separation can be maintained, and whether Turkiye's parliament will formally endorse the arrangement, will shape both the credibility of the Mecca Pact and the risk of wider escalation in the region.