ISLAMABAD
\nPrime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday met the newly appointed secretary-general of the Makkah Defence Alliance, Lieutenant General (retd) Nauman Mahmood, and was briefed on the strategy to promote \u201cdefence and strategic cooperation\u201d under the pact, state-run Radio Pakistan reported.
\nLt Gen (retd) Mahmood was appointed as the first secretary general of the defence alliance between Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkiye last month. The agreement \u2014 signed on August 7 \u2014 empowers member states to treat an attack against one of them as an attack against all. During the meeting, the premier reiterated that the pact was a \u201chistoric milestone for peace, unity, and stability in the region\u201d and wished Lt Gen (retd) Mahmood well for his new role.
\nPM Shehbaz also reaffirmed Pakistan\u2019s \u201cunwavering commitment\u201d to the protection of Saudi Arabia\u2019s \u201csovereignty, territorial integrity and security\u201d during the meeting as the Gulf state, which is a signatory to the pact, has faced escalating tensions with Yemen\u2019s Houthi rebels in recent days. The premier said Pakistan \u201cstands shoulder to shoulder\u201d with Saudi Arabia, according to Radio Pakistan.
\nThe meeting comes amid heightened tensions in the Middle East. On Tuesday, Saudi Arabia launched strikes on Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen, targeting fuel and energy facilities it said were being used to support missile and drone attacks, as the Yemeni group threatened a \u201charsh and painful\u201d response against Saudi airports, refineries and oil installations.
\nHours later, Saudi authorities issued warnings of potential hostile aerial threats in the kingdom\u2019s eastern province and Riyadh.
\nLoud explosions were heard near Saudi Aramco\u2019s headquarters in Dhahran, according to witnesses. Later, a Saudi energy ministry official confirmed the attack. Saudi Arabia\u2019s civil defence agency said that four people \u2014 two women, a man and a child \u2014 were wounded by debris from two intercepted Houthi cruise missiles in the capital and that 15 homes were damaged.
\nThe Houthis have repeatedly attacked Saudi airports, oil facilities and tankers after a truce in their long-running war with Yemen\u2019s coalition government unravelled in July. Against this backdrop, Pakistan has repeatedly expressed solidarity with Saudi Arabia. On October 5, in an emergency meeting of the Makkah pact in Riyadh, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Turkiye agreed to the rapid deployment of military forces and capabilities.
\nDefence Minister Khawaja Asif, who was part of Pakistan\u2019s delegation in the meeting, maintained that Pakistan and Turkiye had \u201cpresence in theatre\u201d and only Saudi troops were involved in combat operations.
\nOn September 18, Inter-Services Public Relations Director General Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said Pakistan would go to \u201cany extent\u201d to defend the Gulf state, adding that Islamabad\u2019s commitment to the kingdom\u2019s security is \u201cunconditional\u201d.
\nAsif has also reaffirmed that Pakistan will \u201cpractically and diplomatically\u201d stand by Saudi Arabia against Yemen\u2019s Houthi rebels if the situation escalates.
\nThe defence minister said that Pakistan would fulfil all its obligations under the Makkah Defence Alliance in accordance with the terms of the agreement between the three countries. At the same time, Pakistan has also asserted that the alliance is intended for collective deterrence and is defensive in nature.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ISLAMABAD Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday met the newly appointed secretary-general of the Makkah Defence Alliance, Lieutenant General (retd) Nauman Mahmood, and was briefed on the strategy to promote \u201cdefence and strategic cooperation\u201d under the pact, state-run Radio Pakistan reported. Lt Gen (retd) Mahmood was appointed as the first secretary general of the defence …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":104351,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-104371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-top"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104371"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104371\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":104384,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104371\/revisions\/104384"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}