Pakistani Defence Minister Khawaja Asif has declared that Pakistan will stand by Saudi Arabia "practically and diplomatically" if the conflict with Yemen's Houthi rebels escalates, citing both treaty obligations and religious duty to protect Islam's holy sites. His remarks follow Saudi accusations that the Houthis targeted Makkah with a drone — a claim the group dismissed as a lie — amid intensifying regional tensions that have seen Houthi forces seize Yemen's entire Red Sea coastline and declare a maritime blockade on Saudi Arabia. Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Türkiye are bound by the Makkah Defence Alliance (a trilateral mutual-defence pact signed in August 2025 stipulating that an attack on one member is treated as an attack on all), and Asif stressed there was "absolutely no ambiguity" about Islamabad's obligations under the agreement.