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Turkey is sending Saudi Arabia air defense systems, drone operators, intelligence sharing and help fine-tuning its defensive measures to fight the Houthis, Reuters reported on Wednesday with quotes from Turkish and U.S. officials.
The assistance, which is currently being provided on a bilateral basis by Turkey, will increase once the Mecca Pact is ratified by the Turkish Parliament. The assistance is described by a U.S. official as “broadly defensive”.
The Mecca Joint Defense Agreement, signed by Saudi Arabia, Türkiye, and Pakistan on August 7, treats an attack on any of the three signatories as an attack on all of them. The pact is expected to be put to Turkey’s parliament following an emergency meeting of the alliance’s Strategic Political and Defense Committee, which took place in Riyadh on October 5, according to Hürriyet Daily News.
The meeting was attended by Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, Defense Minister Yaşar Güler and Chief of General Staff Gen. Selçuk Bayraktaroğlu as well as their Saudi and Pakistani counterparts. According to the report by Hürriyet Daily News, all three countries agreed to provide military forces and means for rapid deployment in Saudi Arabia. The joint statement gave no troop numbers or timetable, and each country will provide forces and means under agreed terms and within the scope of their national laws. In addition, all three countries condemned attacks on Mecca and Medina as well as ongoing attacks on cities in Saudi Arabia as well as attacks on civilian and economic targets.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Hakan Fidan stated that work on the alliance’s institutional structure has reached its final stage. He also stated that the Strategic Political and Defense Committee of the alliance has decided to appoint retired Pakistani Lt. Gen. Nauman Mahmood as the first Secretary-General of the alliance for a three-year period.
He had announced a few weeks prior to this that the Saudi military may have “some military needs” and that “on some technical issues there will be no problems for Turkey in meeting these needs” (NTV, September 19). He did not say what those needs were.
Houthi missile and drone attacks on Saudi Arabia have increased in recent weeks. As CDM reported Wednesday, the Houthis launched ballistic missiles and drones at Aden International Airport in southern Yemen early that morning, and a day earlier launched a wave of attacks on Saudi targets, including the airports in Riyadh and Abha.
