ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Asif said this week that the situation has “already arrived” for the Makkah Joint Defense Agreement to be implemented, reiterating Islamabad’s earlier stance that it stands with Saudi Arabia amid rising Houthi attacks against the Kingdom.

Asif’s statement came in response to an attempted Houthi drone attack on Makkah this week. Saudi Arabia said its air defenses destroyed a drone launched by Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis south of Makkah on Tuesday evening before it could enter restricted airspace over Islam’s holiest city. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif described the attempted attack as an “outrageous” act on Wednesday, saying that Pakistanis were disturbed by the incident.

Pakistan, Turkiye and Saudi Arabia signed a trilateral defense pact in Makkah last month. The terms of the agreement stipulate that an attack against any one of the three countries will be considered an attack against all three.

Speaking to Geo News on Wednesday night, Asif said that there is a “clear cut” position in the defense agreement that if the territorial sovereignty or geographical limits of any one of the three countries in the agreement are violated, then it would be implemented and that all three would combat that aggression together.

“I think that situation has already arrived,” Asif said. “And if the situation escalates any further, then without any doubt we stand with Saudi Arabia both tactfully and diplomatically.”

The Pakistani minister said Islamabad is not only bound by agreement but also considers it its “religious obligation” to defend the Two Holy Mosques.

“To defend it is the first and last part of our faith,” he said.

The attempted attack follows a series of Houthi missile and drone strikes on Saudi Arabia in recent weeks as fighting has intensified inside Yemen and along its Red Sea coast.

Thirteen civilians were injured in Houthi attacks on Khamis Mushait, Abha and Taif on Monday, according to Saudi authorities, while more than 70 people were injured in attacks across the Kingdom last week.

The Houthis have also advanced along Yemen’s Red Sea coast around the strategic Bab Al-Mandab Strait, raising concerns about commercial shipping and energy supplies already strained by disruptions through the Strait of Hormuz during the US-Iran war.

Along with Pakistan, leading international Muslim organizations and bodies such as the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, Muslim World League, the Gulf Cooperation Council and others also criticized the attempted attack on Makkah.