Saudi, Turkey, Pakistan military chiefs to hold 'urgent' meeting today

Saudi, Turkish and Pakistani military chiefs are to meet to discuss how to support Saudi Arabia under a joint defence pact, after Saudi's top religious authority told troops to be ready ‌to lay down their lives to fight Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis.

Turkey's defence ministry said Chief of General Staff General Selcuk Bayraktaroglu would travel to Saudi Arabia on Friday to meet his Saudi and Pakistani counterparts.

Ankara has ​previously said it could help meet Riyadh's military needs, especially on technical issues, but officials have said any support at this stage would be largely bilateral and in the spirit ‌of their alliance, since the joint defence agreement has not yet been ratified by Turkey's parliament.

The Houthis have launched strikes on the Saudi-backed government in Yemen and repeatedly fired into Saudi Arabia, disrupting oil flows from the world's ​largest energy exporter, as part of ⁠a wider Middle East war that began with US and Israeli strikes on Iran in February.

Oil prices fell on Friday as markets weighed the possibility of a truce, despite the number of ships recorded ‌transiting the Strait of Hormuz dropping to nine on Thursday, half the 10-day average.

The Houthis said they had fired dozens of missiles ‌and drones at Saudi targets on Thursday, while authorities in ‌Saudi Arabia said they had intercepted six ballistic missiles fired by Houthi fighters.

Saudi Arabia had earlier issued emergency alerts for areas including the holy city of Makkah, as well as Jeddah and Yanbu, the main Saudi Red Sea oil port.

Grand Mufti's call

Saudi Arabia's Grand Mufti, the kingdom's top religious authority, called on soldiers to be ready to lay down their lives to fight the Houthis until the group is ousted from power, according to a statement ‌late on Thursday.

Amid the fighting, the Saudi, Pakistani and Turkish foreign ministers met within the framework of the Makkah Joint Defence Agreement, which was signed in August. They condemned attacks targeting Makkah and other civilian ⁠sites, while affirming Saudi Arabia's right to defend itself.

"The ministers also discussed arrangements for holding an urgent meeting of the chiefs of staff of the three countries to discuss ways to support Saudi Arabia under the Makkah Joint Defence Agreement, which stipulates that an attack against any one of the parties constitutes an attack against all parties," a Saudi statement said.

The meeting was announced shortly after Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian sought to distance Iran from the Houthis in an American television interview on Thursday.

"The Houthis are responsible for their own actions," Pezeshkian told the Fox News programme "Special Report with Bret Baier" a day after he appeared before the UN General Assembly in New York.

Shuttle diplomacy in New York

The Pezeshkian interview and speech took place amid a pause in fighting between the US and Iran and a brief attempt at diplomacy in New York, with Qatar serving as intermediary between the warring parties.

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi told reporters on Thursday that Tehran had conveyed a proposal to the ⁠United States via intermediaries under which the Strait of Hormuz would be reopened if Tehran's conditions were met.

Under Iran's proposal, hostilities would end on all fronts, including Lebanon, within seven days. The US would lift its blockade on Iranian ports, release Iran's frozen funds and waive its oil sanctions, he said.

"The Strait of Hormuz will be reopened on the last day," Araqchi said, adding that talks with the US on other issues, including Iran's nuclear issue, would ​then start.

A senior Iranian ‌official told Reuters on Wednesday that Tehran was reviewing Washington's response to its peace proposals.

The war, which US President Donald Trump launched alongside Israel, has killed thousands of people and disrupted global trade and energy supplies, adding to inflationary pressures.

Pact with Saudi and Pakistan could expand to Muslim world, Iran, Turkish speaker says

A defence pact between Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan could turn into a broader pact "for ‌the Muslim world" that includes Iran, Turkey's parliament speaker said on Friday, ​adding that ⁠it is expected to be submitted for ratification from next ‌month.

"For international agreements to come into effect, parliamentary approval is needed. The meetings held as part of the agreement at the moment are preparatory meetings," Parliament Speaker Numan Kurtulmus told reporters in Ankara. "I expect this issue ​to come on the parliament's agenda in the coming period," he ‌added, referring to parliament's return from recess in October.

Asked whether the pact was against Iran, Kurtulmus repeated Turkey's position that the agreement did not target any ⁠specific country but was primarily aimed at ensuring the security of states in the region amid conflicts and Israel's "hostile policies", adding that Tehran could potentially join the pact too.

"We never ​see the ‌Makkah Agreement as a pact against Iran, it must not be that ‌way. In fact, we hope the Agreement can turn into a broader agreement for the Muslim world. Iran can join this agreement too, we hope it will ‌become much stronger with ‌the participation of other regional countries," ⁠he said.

Reuters