Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan are moving to hold an urgent meeting of their military chiefs of staff in Riyadh, invoking a joint defence pact after a fresh wave of Houthi attacks on the kingdom deepened fears that the war in Yemen is spilling further across the region.

The decision follows a meeting on Thursday in New York between Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, and Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan.

The three countries are acting under the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement, a pact signed on August 7 that binds them to treat an attack on any one member as an attack on all three. Their foreign and defence ministers, along with military chiefs, held the first meeting of the pact’s Strategic Political and Defence Committee in Istanbul on August 31, where they agreed to set up a secretariat in Saudi Arabia and deepen military cooperation. No date has yet been announced for the new chiefs of staff meeting, and it remains unclear what form of support Turkey and Pakistan might offer Riyadh.

The talks are being arranged as Saudi Arabia reports intensifying attacks from Yemen. Saudi air defences shot down six ballistic missiles aimed at Taif and Yanbu on Thursday, according to coalition spokesman Major General Turki al Malki, who warned that further escalation from the Houthis would be dealt with firmly.

The Houthis separately claimed missile and drone strikes on a sensitive target in Riyadh as well as on Saudi Aramco facilities in Yanbu. France has also stepped in to help shield the kingdom, with President Emmanuel Macron saying Paris would send soldiers, radars and defence systems to protect the Yanbu site.

Inside Yemen, the fighting between Houthi fighters and forces loyal to the internationally recognised government has reached some of its deadliest levels since hostilities flared up again. An AFP tally put the death toll at around 150 fighters killed in the day leading into Friday, made up of 98 troops on the government side and 52 Houthi fighters, with heavy clashes reported around the Kahboub Mountains and between Lahj and Taiz overlooking the Bab al Mandeb strait.

The Houthis have also widened their hold along Yemen’s Red Sea coast in recent weeks, seizing the port city of Mocha and a string of strategic islands, tightening their grip around Bab al Mandeb, a waterway through which roughly 12 percent of global trade normally passes.

Yemen’s government used its platform at the United Nations General Assembly to press for greater international involvement, with Vice President Abdullah Abdulkader Al Alimi Bawzer accusing the Houthis of exploiting freedom of navigation as leverage and effectively taking the global economy hostage.

The renewed offensive has also driven a fresh humanitarian crisis, with the UN refugee agency reporting that more than 230,000 people have been forced from their homes since the start of September alone, adding to about 5.2 million people already displaced inside the country. Families uprooted from Hodeidah, Taiz, Lahj, Aden, Abyan, Marib, al Dhalea and Shabwah are arriving in already overstretched camps in need of shelter, food, clean water and healthcare.

The Riyadh talks come against the backdrop of the wider war pitting the United States and Israel against Iran, of which the Yemen front has become an increasingly volatile offshoot. Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi is reported to have presented Washington with a seven day roadmap aimed at reopening the Strait of Hormuz, even as the Houthis, widely seen as part of Tehran’s regional network, press their advance on one of the Arabian Peninsula’s most powerful states.

Photo Credit: Aljazeera