Pakistan Warns Iran: Saudi Strikes Are 'Our Red Line'
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- Pakistan told Iran at the highest civil and military level that attacks on Saudi Arabia are "attacks on Pakistan" and "our red line," according to a Pakistani official who spoke to Reuters.
- Yemen's Houthis fired missiles at Saudi Arabia this week after accusing the kingdom of bombing a Houthi-controlled airport on Monday, piercing a four-year truce in an incident so far contained to a single exchange.
- Pakistan deployed thousands of soldiers and a fighter jet squadron to Saudi Arabia under a mutual defence pact signed last September, with some troops now positioned near the Saudi-Yemen border per two Pakistani officials.
- Pakistani officials expressed concern that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is increasingly dominating decision-making in Iran, diverging from political leaders including President Pezeshkian, FM Araghchi, and Speaker Ghalibaf.
- An Iranian delegation led by Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni postponed its Islamabad visit earlier this week due to the escalation, arriving two days late on Wednesday.
- Strait of Hormuz tensions disrupted Pakistan's oil and gas supply routes and triggered emergency domestic measures including early business closures—a major reason Islamabad pushed to broker last month's interim US-Iran deal.
- Pakistan faces its sharpest bind yet between mediator and ally: "if Saudi calls us in, we will stand by them and there is no doubt about that," one source aware of the mediation told Reuters.
Why it matters: Pakistan's bind is structural, not just diplomatic: it brokered last month's US-Iran deal in part to reopen Strait of Hormuz oil and gas supply routes that triggered domestic fuel shortages and early business closures, per analysts and officials cited in the article. But the mutual defence pact signed last September—as Gulf states grew wary of US security guarantees—now threatens to drag Pakistani troops near the Saudi-Yemen border into a widening Houthi conflict.
