Mecca Joint Defense Agreement

A Turkish official said Turkey's own contribution to the Saudi fight against the Houthis was expected to be limited to military equipment, intelligence sharing, and weapons systems.

The Houthis are exposing an uncomfortable reality: Saudi Arabia, despite spending hundreds of billions on defense, remains dangerously vulnerable to an Iranian-backed militia.

Jonathan Hessen, a senior fellow at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security, said that while such regional alliances could happen in the future, Egypt is now preoccupied with other issues.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Houthi spokesperson warned Saudi Arabia that any Saudi attack on Sana'a would be met with a "harsh" response.

“Pakistan will not tolerate any kind of aggression. Our agreements demand it, and so do our bonds of brotherhood.” 

Saudi Arabia's defense pact with Turkey and Pakistan faces growing scrutiny as the Houthi conflict escalates, with questions remaining over military deployments and the allies' roles.

Nuclear facilities have been damaged, but subsequent US intelligence assessments do not indicate a significant increase in the time Iran would need to produce a weapon. 

"We may. We're going to look at it. We just found out about the recent attack, so we'll make a decision," US President Donald Trump said. "We move very quickly."

The US and its allies have no alternative but to prove to Iran-backed terror groups that closing straits to influence the global economy and political and operational decisions will not succeed.

The Mecca pact is moving from declaration to implementation, exposing unresolved questions in Turkey over troop deployments, parliamentary authority, and the risk of direct involvement in Yemen.