By Mansoor Qaisar, Islamabad 

When Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkiye signed the Makkah Alliance for Defence in August, most of us read it as a statement of intent. It took barely two months for that to change. On October 5, ministers and commanders met in Riyadh and agreed to activate collective deterrence measures and send forces and capabilities to the Kingdom at speed. The same meeting appointed retired Lt Gen Nauman Mahmood, a Pakistani, as the alliance’s first secretary-general for three years.

Then came Thursday. Two Houthi attacks hit Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport, one on the facilities and one on a Saudia aircraft. Three Saudi citizens died, among them a pilot, and people of several nationalities were wounded. Hundreds of flights were cancelled, and European regulators widened their no-fly advisory. By Friday the airport was running normally again. The signal had still been sent: the capital is within reach.

I think this is the moment the alliance has to answer a question it has so far dodged. The pact is modelled on NATO’s Article 5, so an attack on one is treated as an attack on all. Yet all three governments describe it as purely defensive. Both statements can be true only if someone explains where the line sits.

This is not only about Yemen

It helps to remember what kind of war this is. Reuters ties the escalation to the wider US-Iran confrontation. Iranian attacks have choked traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, which makes the Red Sea and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait far more valuable than usual. A month ago the Houthis took ground along that coast. Saudi Arabia has answered with a growing air campaign, Sanaa included, and Yemeni government forces backed by Riyadh have launched a large offensive that their government says is meant to retake everything the Houthis have conquered. The coalition says it hit 324 targets and gave those forces air cover.

So the state this alliance is rushing to protect is also a state on the attack. That does not make Saudi Arabia’s position illegitimate, because it is being struck hard. But it does mean “defensive” cannot be assumed. It has to be shown.

Where the language starts to strain

Prince Khalid bin Salman said the committee would act against the attacks and “all those........

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