(Reuters) — Saudi Arabia is seeking increased support from Turkey and Pakistan as Houthi forces intensify attacks against the kingdom and Saudi-backed forces in Yemen. The three countries are preparing an urgent meeting of military chiefs under their recently established defense agreement.
The escalation comes as Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has publicly attempted to distance his government from Houthi decisions and military operations.
The Houthis said they launched dozens of missiles and drones toward Saudi targets on Thursday. Saudi authorities said their forces intercepted six ballistic missiles. Earlier, Saudi officials issued emergency alerts affecting areas that included Mecca, Jeddah and Yanbu, a major Red Sea oil port.
Saudi Arabia’s leading religious authority also called on the kingdom’s military personnel to be prepared to lay down their lives in the campaign against the Houthis until the group is removed from power, according to Saudi state media.
Foreign ministers from Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan met under the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement as the attacks continued. According to the Saudi Foreign Ministry, the officials denounced attacks on Mecca and other civilian locations and reaffirmed 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 Mecca Joint Defence Agreement, which stipulates that an attack against any one of the parties constitutes an attack against all parties,” the statement said.
The announcement followed an interview in which Pezeshkian was asked about Iran’s relationship with the Houthis.
“The Houthis are responsible for their own actions,” Pezeshkian told the Fox News program “Special Report with Bret Baier” a day after he addressed the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
His comments came during a temporary reduction in direct hostilities between Washington and Tehran, alongside a diplomatic effort in New York in which Qatar has served as an intermediary.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said Tehran had also transmitted a proposal to the United States through intermediaries concerning the Strait of Hormuz. Under the proposal, he said, the strategic waterway could be reopened if Washington accepted Iran’s conditions.
Araqchi said Tehran’s proposal would require an end to hostilities across the region, including Lebanon, within seven days. He said the United States would also have to lift its blockade of Iranian ports, release frozen Iranian assets and remove oil sanctions.
“The Strait of Hormuz will be reopened on the last day,” Araqchi said, adding that negotiations with Washington on other matters, including Iran’s nuclear program, would subsequently begin.
A senior Iranian official told Reuters that Tehran was examining the U.S. response to its peace proposals.
The wider conflict, which began with U.S. and Israeli strikes against Iran in February, has caused thousands of deaths and disrupted international energy markets, contributing to rising oil prices.
Even as direct U.S.-Iranian fighting has diminished, armed groups aligned with Tehran remain active. Hezbollah continues fighting Israel in Lebanon, while Houthi forces have pushed forward in Yemen.
The conflict has also affected Saudi Arabia’s energy infrastructure and exports. Houthi attacks have disrupted maritime traffic around the entrance to the Red Sea, while tanker movements through the Strait of Hormuz have been heavily restricted. Before the war, the waterway handled about one-fifth of worldwide oil exports. An attack by Iranian-backed militias in Iraq also temporarily interrupted Saudi Arabia’s East-West Pipeline.
The precise degree of Iran’s influence over the Houthis remains a matter of debate among security specialists. The movement developed from a local Yemeni insurgency into a major armed organization that now controls substantial portions of northern Yemen.
At the same time, Yemeni government officials and Iranian and regional sources have told Reuters that the Houthi advance along Yemen’s Red Sea coast received direct guidance from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Washington has meanwhile expanded its economic campaign against Tehran. With the battlefield conflict between Iran and the U.S.-Israeli alliance largely stalled, the United States has moved to increase pressure on foreign companies doing business with Iranian entities through measures known as “secondary sanctions”.
The impact of that strategy was seen Thursday when Iranian airlines were barred from operating in countries including the UAE and Oman following new American sanctions. Continued restrictions on international air travel could further limit Iran’s connections with the outside world.
Iran is already facing serious economic pressure, including restrictions affecting its seaborne trade. A retired Tehran teacher described the situation to Reuters in a text message, requesting that her identity remain confidential.
“We are living in an open-air prison,” a retired teacher in Tehran told Reuters by text message on condition her name not be used.