For much of the past year, Pakistan has played a dual role as Riyadh’s defence partner and Washington’s backchannel to Tehran. But this week’s fighting between Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi movement and Saudi forces is testing how long Islamabad can hold both positions.
The fighting is the first major test of the mutual defence alliance signed by Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey last month. Under the pact, an armed attack on any one of the three countries is regarded as an attack on all.
Pakistani officials fear the Houthi threat could draw Islamabad into a war more directly than Iranian missile strikes on Saudi energy infrastructure earlier this year. Pakistani soldiers are deployed near the Saudi border with Yemen, increasing their exposure, two officials told Reuters in July.
Yet Pakistan also relies on oil and gas shipments through the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea -- routes Iran and the Houthis have shown they can disrupt. Islamabad therefore has a strong incentive not to alienate Tehran even as it deepens ties with Gulf states.
This week, Pakistan delivered a Saudi warning urging Iran to rein in its Houthi allies, according to Saudi, Pakistani and Iranian sources. Army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir also spoke with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi on Thursday about restoring diplomatic efforts to de-escalate the conflict.
“Pakistan is trying to keep a low profile in the Saudi-Houthi conflict because Pakistan’s own stakes are high,” a Pakistani government official told Reuters. “It does not want to spoil relations with Iran.”
Foreign ministry spokesman Sajjad Haider Khan said no military response to the Houthi attacks was under discussion.
Analysts say the balancing act could become harder if Saudi Arabia demands military or intelligence support.
“Relaying and shaping messages is one thing,” Washington-based analyst Kamran Bokhari said, but “active air-defence or intelligence support is another, tipping Pakistan from stakeholder into combatant.”
Pakistan has already deployed thousands of troops and a fighter squadron to Saudi Arabia. With forces also stretched by tensions with India and insurgencies in its western provinces, further Gulf commitments could prove “daunting”, Bokhari said.
