Overview
- On September 23 Pakistan appointed Lieutenant General (retd) Nauman Mahmood as the first secretary-general of the Makkah Joint Defence Agreement with a three-year mandate to set up and run the pact’s Riyadh-based General Secretariat.
- The new secretary-general met President Asif Ali Zardari on Tuesday and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday who both publicly reaffirmed Pakistan’s commitment to defend Saudi sovereignty and described the pact as strictly defensive.
- Member states agreed at an emergency Riyadh meeting to prepare for rapid deployments and coordinated capabilities after the recent escalation of Houthi missile, drone and maritime attacks on Saudi airports, oil facilities and shipping routes.
- Key operational details remain undisclosed, including the pact’s command arrangements, legal triggers for collective action, force compositions and rules of engagement, leaving open whether the arrangement will act mainly as deterrence or become an operational combat alliance.
- The immediate effect will be closer Saudi, Pakistani and Turkish coordination that can free Saudi combat units by adding air-defence, surveillance and support roles, but the deployments raise risks of mission creep and wider regional escalation if ground operations extend across the Yemeni border.