As fighting between Yemen’s Houthi movement and Saudi forces tests a mutual defence pact, Pakistan is delivering Saudi warnings to Iran. Pakistani officials are attempting to balance lucrative Gulf security ties and economic deals against vital oil shipping routes through the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea.
The Test of a New Mutual Defence Alliance
For much of the past year, Pakistan has played a dual role as Riyadh’s defence partner and Washington’s backchannel to Tehran. That diplomatic balancing act faces a stress test following an outbreak of fighting between Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi movement and Saudi forces.
This escalation represents the first major test of the mutual defence alliance signed last month between Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey, which layers onto a pre-existing pact between Islamabad and Riyadh. Under the terms of the arrangement, an armed attack on any of the three member nations is to be regarded as an attack on all.
Pakistani officials worry that the Houthi threat is more likely to draw Islamabad into a war than previous events, such as Iranian missile strikes on Saudi energy infrastructure earlier this year. Disclosed deployments of Pakistani soldiers stationed near the Saudi border with Yemen have only heightened their direct exposure to the regional conflict.
Delivering Saudi Warnings While Protecting Tehran Ties
Seeking to prevent an escalation before it’s too late, Islamabad delivered a Saudi warning urging Iran to rein in its Yemeni Houthi allies. The diplomatic maneuver unfolded alongside high-level military communication.
Pakistan army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir held a telephone call with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi to discuss ways to restore diplomatic efforts to de-escalate on all fronts
. A Pakistani source familiar with the outreach noted the delicate positioning required.
“Pakistan is trying to keep a low profile in the Saudi-Houthi conflict because Pakistan’s own stakes are high,” a second Pakistani government official told Reuters. “It does not want to spoil relations with Iran.”
Second Pakistani government official
In a briefing, foreign ministry spokesman Sajjad Haider Khan confirmed that no military response to the Houthi attacks is currently under discussion. Khan emphasized that Iran’s leadership has consistently appreciated Pakistan’s mediation efforts
and that Islamabad consistently advocates for restraint, dialogue, and diplomacy.
Economic Imperatives and Regional Shipping Vulnerabilities
Pakistan’s entanglements with the Gulf are anchored in economic survival. Defence deals with Gulf nations serve as a key part of Islamabad’s strategy to boost its fledgling economy after years of crisis, often arriving bundled with parallel or subsequent investment talks.
Yet, economic survival cuts both ways. Pakistan depends on oil and gas shipments traversing the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea. Because Iran and the Houthis have shown an operational capacity to disrupt those critical maritime routes, Islamabad faces incentives to avoid alienating Tehran.
Past friction underlines the volatility of the border. Tensions between nuclear-armed Pakistan and Iran erupted into deadly clashes two years ago, when Iranian missile and drone strikes on alleged militant hideouts inside Pakistan’s Balochistan province triggered retaliatory strikes from Islamabad before tensions calmed.
Recalibrating Regional Alliances and Managing Kuwait’s Push
The scale of this balancing act has prompted Islamabad to recalibrate. After the initial Saudi pact, Kuwait pushed for a largely identical arrangement with Pakistani officials.
Wary of deepening military ties with another Gulf state vulnerable to Iranian bombardment, Pakistani officials scaled back the discussions. Instead of a mutual defence pact, the two countries signed a narrower protocol covering training, border security, and capacity-building. Foreign ministry spokesman Khan confirmed that no plans exist to expand the broader Pakistan-Saudi-Turkey alliance to new members at the moment.
While public statements from Tehran praise Islamabad’s role, three Iranian sources offered a more critical private assessment, arguing that Pakistan lacks the means to deliver or the institutional mediation experience possessed by intermediaries like Qatar or Oman.
Weighing Diplomatic Capital Against Personal Bonhomie
Independent analysts question whether Iranian trust in Pakistan was ever as solid as assumed. Farzana Shaikh, an associate fellow at Chatham House, noted that Pakistan’s elevated role owes less to institutional leverage than to the personal bonhomie
between President Donald Trump and Field Marshal Asim Munir.
Trump has called Munir his favorite field marshal
on numerous occasions, following a Pakistani charm offensive centered on crypto deals, American access to rare minerals, and counterterrorism. Whether that personal rapport can withstand the current regional tensions remains an unresolved question for Islamabad’s foreign policy.
