Pakistan, Turkey and Saudi Arabia have signed a mutual defense agreement, while the Iran-backed Houthi rebels have stepped up attacks on Saudi-linked targets.
Here’s a look at developments across the Middle East on Friday. Full coverage can be found here.
Oil-rich Saudi Arabia, nuclear power Pakistan and Turkey, which has NATO’s second-largest army and a rapidly growing defense industry, signed a mutual defense agreement on Friday.
The deal stipulates that an armed attack on either of the three countries will be regarded as an attack against them all. It was signed during a meeting in Saudi Arabia between Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Pakistan's foreign ministry said.
“The Agreement is intended to strengthen collective deterrence against any act of aggression,” the ministry said in a statement.
The deal comes at a time when Saudi Arabia, whose critical infrastructure and oil facilities have come under attack as part of the war in Iran, has been looking to diversify its defense partnerships.
If an acceptable deal is reached to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, U.S. President Donald Trump would end the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports as long as the terms of the agreement are respected, a U.S. official said Friday.
The administration has been told by regional mediators that a deal between Iran and Oman on the crucial waterway could be finalized in the coming days, the official said. The U.S. would study whatever comes from the Iran-Oman talks before taking a position.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal administration deliberations, reiterated that the U.S. would not accept any agreement that allows Iran to charge tolls or service fees or otherwise interfere with ships.
— By Matthew Lee in Washington
Iran-backed Houthis launched attacks on Marib province in eastern Yemen on Friday morning, in the latest escalation with Saudi-backed forces, a military official with the forces in Marib said.
The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak to the media, said the missiles were fired from west of the Yemeni capital, Sanaa.
Qassem Bahaibah, health minister in Yemen’s internationally recognized government, said in a statement on social media that the attacks targeted a refugee camp and residential areas, killing at least two people and injuring 14 others.
Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said in a statement late Friday that the rebel group targeted a Saudi-backed military camp in Marib, using drones and missiles to destroy storage facilities and military equipment. He added that the rebel group will target any Saudi-supported troop buildup or allied groups meant to keep the Saudi blockade on Yemen.
Separately, the rebel group struck the Najran region in southwestern Saudi Arabia near the Yemeni border on Thursday, the official spokesperson of the Saudi-led Coalition to Restore Legitimacy in Yemen, Maj. Gen. Turki al-Malki, confirmed in a statement on X overnight.
He said the attack wounded 11 civilians, including a woman and a child who suffered second-degree burns, and accused the rebels of carrying out “indiscriminate shelling against civilian objects.”
The Houthis did not immediately claim the attack on Najran in Saudi Arabia.
The attacks mark a major escalation since a truce in 2022 largely halted fighting. The civil war pits the Iran-backed Houthis against a Saudi-led coalition allied with Yemen’s internationally recognized government.
— By Ahmed Al-Haj in Aden, Yemen and Fatma Khaled in Cairo
The Lebanese army said the soldier was lightly wounded on Friday while he was in a bulldozer opening roads in the southern village of Mansouri.
Mansouri was subjected to Israeli shelling earlier this week, according to Lebanon’s state news agency.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.
The Israeli army launched strikes Wednesday in southern Lebanon in response to what it described as Hezbollah’s violation of the ceasefire and called on residents of Mansouri to flee — the first such warning Israel has issued in Lebanon for weeks.
FILE - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, right, and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman shake hands during a welcome ceremony, in Ankara, Turkey, Wednesday, June 22, 2022. (AP Photo/Burhan Ozbilici, File)
