Pact with Turkey and Pakistan did not envisage intervention in Yemen — Jerusalem Post
In Saudi Arabia, the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement with Turkey and Pakistan was not intended to immediately involve partners in the war in Yemen, according to the author of The Jerusalem Post. The article examines assumptions that Houthi advances could call the new alliance into question.
Defensive nature of the agreement
The author notes that a number of media outlets linked Houthi attacks, including reports about the situation around Mecca, to the limitations of the agreement between Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Pakistan. At the same time, in his assessment, the assumption that Turkey and Pakistan must enter the war against the Houthis may be based on a mistaken understanding of the arrangement.
The agreement was concluded while the war in Yemen was already ongoing. The article contains no indication that, when signing it, Riyadh planned to ask Ankara or Islamabad to send troops to Yemen or deploy air defense systems in the kingdom. Saudi Arabia and Pakistan had cooperated in the defense sphere even before the agreement was signed.
More current news is available on the UA.News Telegram channel Telegram.
Comparison with NATO
The author cautions against directly comparing the Mecca agreement with NATO. He recalls that the North Atlantic Alliance did not participate in the Vietnam War, the Falklands War, or the conflict in Northern Ireland, despite its collective defense mechanism.
The author compares the war in Yemen for Saudi Arabia to the Vietnam War for the United States. Riyadh supports Yemen's internationally recognized government, while the Houthis, according to the author, are receiving increasingly sophisticated weapons from foreign forces.
Role of partners
Turkey and Pakistan can provide Saudi Arabia with military experience and advice, but the practical benefit of this may be limited, in the author's view. He believes that Riyadh must first determine its own policy on the conflict. The concept of the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement, the article concludes, rather launches a process of cooperation than envisages the rapid deployment of forces in partner countries.
