RIYADH: Turkey and Pakistan will undertake a "rapid deployment" of troops to Saudi Arabia as part of a new mutual defence alliance, the three countries said Monday, as the Gulf kingdom faces escalating attacks from Yemen's Houthis.
The three countries in August signed the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement committing them to come to each other's aid in the event one were attacked.
The pact unites Nato's second-largest army, that of Turkey, with the Islamic world's only nuclear-armed state, Pakistan, and the leading Gulf power, Saudi Arabia.
Their representatives held an emergency meeting in Riyadh on Monday where they noted recent attacks on Saudi Arabia, in particular ones targeting the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, without mentioning the Iran-backed Houthis by name.
