00:00The latest Houthi escalation in Saudi Arabia threatens to push the region to the brink of all-out war. Here's
00:07why.
00:10Saudi Arabia is under attack. It's witnessed quite a lot of strikes over the last few weeks.
00:20Strikes that really have hit its economy hard, its ability to supply oil to the world.
00:27And it's looking for allies. It's looking for allies that can, first of all, defend it.
00:32But there are increasingly also questions about whether this is something that can be resolved through defensive mechanisms and diplomacy,
00:42or whether we're going to see more military action in Yemen again.
00:47The Houthi-Saudi tensions really go back many years.
00:51The Houthis seized the capital, Sana'a, and much of the north of Yemen in 2014, which prompted Saudi military
00:59intervention the next year,
01:01and left the government split essentially between the Houthi-controlled north and the Saudi-backed government in Aden.
01:09These tensions kind of faded after a UN-broker truce in 2022.
01:18But a lot of the underlying demands and underlying frustrations were never really resolved.
01:27Pakistan struck a mutual defense agreement with Saudi Arabia last year,
01:33essentially saying that if Saudi Arabia is attacked, Pakistan will come to its help.
01:38Pakistan has, over the last months, repeatedly warned Iran to rein in the Houthis,
01:45which it sees as an Iran-backed group, essentially, that's getting support and advice from the Iranians.
01:54We've heard from multiple officials that this message has been delivered to Iran on multiple occasions,
02:02including directly by the Pakistani Army Chief, Asim Munir.
02:08Iran obviously has a critical role to play.
02:15It's currently unclear in what form this Mecca Pact would be activated.
02:20It's, you know, all the parties involved in it, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan, have said that it's a defensive
02:28pact.
02:29A lot of the signals that have been given by the Saudi government, by Saudi officials over the last days,
02:39have been that they're seeking for robust defense.
02:42They're hoping that Pakistan and Turkey will come to its support.
02:48Pakistan already has soldiers based in Saudi Arabia,
02:53already has weapons and other technology in the country to help Saudi Arabia defend itself.
02:59So the question here is, what else is Saudi Arabia looking for?
03:03And I'm sure this is something that's currently top of mind for a lot of people,
03:07a lot of government officials and military officials here in Islamabad.
03:11I.
