Houthi attack on Mecca, Medina would cross ‘red line’, Pakistan PM tells UN

Pakistan’s prime minister told the UN General Assembly that attacks on the Muslim holy cities of Mecca and Medina would cross a "red line," as he condemned recent strikes by Yemen’s Houthi movement on Saudi targets. Shehbaz Sharif described such attacks as deplorable and said allegations that the Houthis targeted Mecca had "outraged Muslims across the globe," while the group has rejected those accusations as a "heinous lie."

The remarks coincided with a meeting in Riyadh between the military chiefs of Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, who reviewed security threats facing Saudi Arabia and discussed boosting intelligence sharing and military coordination. The Pakistani military said the chiefs reaffirmed their commitment to collective defence and pledged to turn the Mecca Agreement’s commitments into workable cooperation, though it remained unclear what specific support Islamabad and Ankara may provide to Riyadh.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was quoted in a written Newsweek interview saying assistance could include "intelligence, logistics or ammunition," with the possibility of broader military help depending on the scale of the threat. The trilateral Mecca pact states that an attack on any signatory will be treated as an attack on all, a provision that frames the current consultations among the three countries.

In his UN address Sharif also reflected on related regional crises, invoking Pakistan’s role in mediating a US-Iran accord known as the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding, which he said has since unraveled. He warned that the Strait of Hormuz and the Bab al-Mandeb — critical maritime routes now impacted by Iranian and Houthi actions respectively — must remain open for global commerce. Sharif additionally condemned what he called Israel’s actions in Palestine, criticised India over alleged moves to restrict Pakistan’s share of Indus waters, and reiterated concerns about Tehrik-e-Taliban (TTP) groups operating from sanctuaries in Afghanistan; cross-border fighting recently left several Afghan Taliban fighters dead, according to the report.