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Attack on Mecca or Medina a 'red line' Sharif warns UN

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Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif condemned Houthi strikes on Saudi Arabia as army chiefs of Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkiye met in Riyadh over the Mecca pact.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif told the United Nations General Assembly on Friday that any threat to the holy cities of Mecca and Medina amounts to a "red line that must never be crossed", condemning recent Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia as "deplorable".

Speaking in New York on 25 September, Sharif said a strike that Riyadh has blamed on the Iran-aligned Yemeni group, and which the kingdom says was aimed at Mecca, had "outraged Muslims across the globe". He framed the safety of Islam's two holiest sites as a matter beyond negotiation. The Houthis have rejected the accusation, calling it a "heinous lie".

The remarks came the same day the army chiefs of Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkiye gathered in Riyadh. According to the Pakistani military, the three commanders talked through ways to deepen intelligence sharing and coordinate their forces more closely. They assessed the dangers now facing Saudi Arabia, restated a shared duty to defend one another, and vowed to translate their new agreement from paper into working cooperation.

That agreement is the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement, a three-way defence pact the countries concluded last month. Its central clause treats an assault on any one signatory as an assault on all. Yet the pledge has not so far pulled Islamabad or Ankara into Saudi Arabia's active confrontation with the Houthis, and both have kept their distance from the fighting.

What practical help Turkiye and Pakistan might extend to Riyadh remains undecided. In a written interview with Newsweek published on Friday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan suggested any assistance could begin with intelligence, logistics or ammunition, and said broader military support was possible if the threat grew larger.

The wider war and the waterways

Sharif used much of his address to return to the conflict that erupted when the United States and Israel opened a war against Iran in late February. He highlighted Pakistan's part as a co-mediator, an effort that produced the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding between Washington and Tehran. That understanding was meant to bring the fighting to a close, but it has since fallen apart even as governments in the region press for a definitive end.

The war has driven up energy prices worldwide and sharpened hostilities across the Middle East. "Yet amid the roar of missiles, drones and guns, the voice for diplomacy must echo even louder and stronger," Sharif said.

He also pointed to two shipping routes now caught up in the crisis. Iran has effectively shut the Strait of Hormuz, while the Bab al-Mandeb has slipped largely under Houthi control. Sharif described both as "arteries of the global economy" that ought to stay open and secure.

Palestine, Lebanon and India

The prime minister condemned what he called Israel's "genocidal agenda" in Palestine and denounced "Israeli aggression against Lebanon and Syria". Similar language had come earlier in the day from Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam during his own turn at the General Assembly.

Closer to Pakistan's borders, Sharif turned to strained relations with its neighbours. He criticised India, accusing New Delhi of weaponising the waters of the Indus, a river system the two nations have long managed together.

Sharif's speech drew together the threads of a region under strain: a defence bloc newly formed around the protection of Saudi Arabia, a collapsed peace framework, contested sea lanes, and a war whose economic shockwaves have spread far beyond the countries directly involved. His central message to the assembly held that the sanctity of Mecca and Medina sits above the region's other disputes, and that no attack on them can be tolerated.

Shehbaz Sharif UN speech, Houthi attack Mecca, Mecca Joint Defence Agreement, Pakistan Saudi Arabia Turkiye pact, Strait of Hormuz blockade, Bab al-Mandeb Houthi, Islamabad Memorandum, US-Israel war Iran

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