Pakistan fears being dragged into West Asia war as Houthi attacks resume, reports say
Pakistan warns Iran-backed attacks on Saudi Arabia could force Islamabad to choose between Tehran and Riyadh. Image Credit: @Iran_GOV
New Delhi: Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi rebels fired missiles at Saudi Arabia this week, ending a four-year truce between the two sides. The Houthis said the attack came in response to Saudi Arabia bombing an airport under their control earlier this week, according to reports.
Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have a longstanding military relationship. The two countries signed a mutual defence agreement last year, and Pakistan currently has thousands of soldiers deployed in Saudi Arabia, along with a squadron of fighter jets.
Pakistan is nuclear-armed and acted as a mediator last month in reaching an interim deal in the wider US-Iran war. This has positioned Pakistan as a rare mediator between Washington and Tehran.
According to reports, this week’s Houthi attacks have alarmed Islamabad more than earlier Iranian strikes on Saudi Arabia did. Pakistani troops are deployed near the Saudi-Yemen border, putting them much closer to any Houthi attacks than they were during earlier rounds of Iran-Saudi tension.
A Pakistani security analyst said, according to reports, that Islamabad had not expected tensions to escalate so suddenly. The cross-border fire has so far been limited to a single incident, but officials worry that a wider conflict could leave Pakistan caught between its security commitments to Saudi Arabia and its efforts to preserve ties with Iran, ending its role as a neutral broker in the region.
