Pakistan will be there to defend Saudi Arabia in any conflict: Khawaja Asif
Defence Minister Khawaja Asif has said that Pakistan was “there to help” Saudi Arabia in any conflict.
“We are there to help Saudi Arabia in any conflict, whether it is coming from the Houthis or a country or any other outfit that threatens Saudi Arabia’s security. We will be there to defend them,” he said in a video clip, which appeared to be excerpted from a longer interview, published by Al Jazeera.
His remarks come amid fresh fighting between the Houthis and the Yemeni government that has dragged in Riyadh, with the Houthis declaring a maritime blockade on the kingdom and targeting its ships in the Red Sea. Both sides have claimed strikes on each other as tensions remain high.
Against this backdrop, Pakistan, which has signed two defence agreements with Riyadh, has expressed solidarity with Saudi Arabia.
On Sept 18, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said Pakistan would go to “any extent” to defend Saudi Arabia, adding that Islamabad’s commitment to the kingdom’s security was “unconditional”.
Earlier, Asif has also reaffirmed that Pakistan would “practically and diplomatically” stand by Saudi Arabia against Yemen’s Houthi rebels if the situation escalated.
In his latest remarks, Asif said “there is no absolutely no doubt in our mind that Houthis are committing aggression against Saudi Arabia”.
He added that Pakistan was bound an arrangement to defend Saudi Arabia.
And “when I say that we are bound by this arrangement to defend Saudi Arabia, that means that whatever means are available at our disposal, they will be available to Saudi Arabia also”.
Here, the use of “arrangement” was apparently a reference to one of the defence pacts Pakistan has signed with Riyadh.
The first one, the Strategic Mutual Defence Agreement (SMDA), was signed in Sept 2025, under which the two countries pledged that any attack on either nation would be treated as an act of aggression against both.
The two countries are also a party to the Makkah Defence Alliance, which also includes Turkiye. The pact was signed on August 7 and provides that an attack on one member state would be treated as an attack on all.
The military leadership of the three countries also held a meeting last week in Riyadh. During the meeting, the military leaders expressed a shared determination to “immediately translate” their commitments under the Makkah Defence Alliance into effective military cooperation.
In his interview to Al Jazeera, Asif also said Houthis were “enemies of Saudi Arabia, and any enemy of Saudi Arabia is an enemy of Pakistan That should we very clear”.
“And Iranians are not accepting them (Houthis) as their proxy.
“Some of these proxies have become rogue. I don’t have to go into history, I can give you multiple examples of that. Some countries — A, B or C — they launch a proxy, and then the proxy has its own way of multiplying and then becoming a rogue sort of entity,” he added.
