Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan call urgent chiefs-of-staff meeting over Houthi attacks

Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan will hold an urgent high-level meeting under their joint defense pact to discuss ways of supporting the kingdom, amid escalating attacks by Yemen’s Iran-linked Houthis. The news was announced on Friday (September 25, 2026) through a Saudi foreign ministry statement, cited by Reuters.

According to the statement, the three countries’ foreign ministers met under the “Mecca Joint Defense Agreement” and condemned the attacks that targeted Mecca and other civilian objectives, reaffirming Saudi Arabia’s right to self-defense. “The ministers also discussed arrangements for holding an urgent meeting of the three countries’ chiefs of staff to discuss ways of supporting Saudi Arabia under the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement, which stipulates that an attack on any party is considered an attack on all,” the statement said.

The announcement came shortly after Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian sought to distance himself from his Houthi allies in an interview with U.S. television Fox News. “The Houthis are responsible for their own actions,” Pezeshkian said on the “Special Report with Bret Baier” program, a day after his speech before the UN General Assembly in New York. Meanwhile, the Houthis said that on Thursday they had fired dozens of missiles and drones at Saudi targets, while Saudi authorities announced they had shot down six ballistic missiles fired by Houthi fighters.

Saudi Arabia had earlier issued emergency alerts for areas including the holy city of Mecca, Jeddah and Yanbu, the kingdom’s main oil port on the Red Sea. The kingdom’s top religious authority called on soldiers to be ready to “give their lives” to fight the Houthis until the group is toppled from power, in a statement posted on the Saudi state news agency.

The diplomatic meeting takes place amid a pause in direct fighting between the U.S. and Iran and a short-lived diplomatic effort in New York, with Qatar as mediator. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told reporters on Thursday that Tehran had conveyed to Washington through mediators a proposal under which the Strait of Hormuz would reopen if Tehran’s conditions were met: a cessation of hostilities on all fronts within seven days, the lifting of the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports, the release of frozen funds and the removal of oil sanctions. Reuters also reported that Iranian airlines were banned on Thursday by the United Arab Emirates and Oman in response to new U.S. sanctions — the first major impact of the U.S. policy shift toward secondary sanctions against third-country companies doing business with Iranian firms.

Source: Reuters