Turkey and Pakistan to send troops to Saudi Arabia under defence pact

Turkey and Pakistan will undertake a "rapid deployment" of troops to Saudi Arabia as part of a new mutual defence alliance, the three countries said Monday, as the Gulf kingdom faces escalating attacks from Yemen's Houthis.

In August, the three countries signed the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement, committing to come to each other's aid if one were attacked.

The pact unites NATO's second-largest army, that of Turkey, with the Islamic world's only nuclear-armed state, Pakistan, and the largest Gulf power, Saudi Arabia.

Their representatives held an emergency meeting in Riyadh on Monday, where they noted recent attacks on Saudi Arabia, in particular those targeting the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, without mentioning the Tehran-backed Houthis by name.

The trio "reaffirmed their unequivocal rejection of any attack or threat against the kingdom's security and territorial integrity", they said in a joint statement.

They also agreed "to move immediately to the practical implementation of the collective defence commitments and to take the necessary measures to provide the agreed military forces and capabilities and ensure their rapid deployment in the kingdom".

The statement did not specify what sort of role the troops would fill once in Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia has faced repeated Houthi attacks targeting its cities, oil infrastructure and ships ever since Yemen's civil war flared back to life in July.

In September, the group launched a new offensive that seized swathes of territory from Yemen's internationally recognised government, which on Monday launched a counteroffensive with Riyadh's support, seeking to retake all Houthi territory, some of it held for more than a decade.