After Houthi attacks, Erdogan sends Mecca defence pact to parliament
Turkey wants to ratify its defence agreement with Saudi Arabia and Pakistan in the coming days. Erdogan calls the Houthi attacks "unlawful and inhumane".
Archive image · Photo: Press Service of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0 (cropped and resized)
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will submit the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement with Saudi Arabia and Pakistan to parliament "in the coming days" to complete ratification, he announced on Monday after a cabinet meeting in Ankara. He condemned the Houthi attacks on Riyadh's airport as "unlawful and inhumane", saying Turkey stands with its "Saudi brothers". He offered condolences to the victims, among them Umrah pilgrims.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif pledged to support Saudi Arabia "in every possible way". "We have a bilateral agreement, a trilateral agreement with regard to defense," he said, calling the attacks "heinous". The pact was signed in Mecca on 7 August; according to the Jerusalem Post, it treats an attack on one country as an attack on all.
In early October, Turkey and Pakistan agreed to deploy forces to Saudi Arabia; Pakistan's military confirmed a deployment last week, according to the Jerusalem Post. The Saudi-led coalition said it had struck 136 Houthi targets, according to Iran International. The United States has so far supported the campaign only with intelligence.