Pakistan Under Pressure as Saudi-Houthi Fighting Tests Its Balancing Act

ISLAMABAD/DUBAI, Sept. 11, 2026 — For much of the past year, Pakistan has sought to maintain two sensitive relationships at the same time: serving as a defense partner to Saudi Arabia while also acting as a channel between Washington and Tehran. But the latest fighting between Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi movement and Saudi forces is increasingly challenging Islamabad’s ability to maintain that balance.

The conflict is the first significant test of the mutual-defense alliance signed last month by Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey. The new agreement supplements an existing defense arrangement between Islamabad and Riyadh and stipulates that an armed attack against any one of the three countries would be treated as an attack against all three.

Pakistani officials are increasingly concerned that the Houthi threat could pull Islamabad directly into a broader war, potentially posing a greater challenge than Iranian attacks on Saudi energy facilities earlier this year. Two Pakistani officials told Reuters in July that Pakistani troops are stationed near Saudi Arabia’s border with Yemen, placing them closer to the potential conflict.

Defense agreements with Gulf countries have become an important element of Pakistan’s efforts to strengthen its fragile economy after years of crisis. Such military arrangements have also frequently been accompanied by discussions over Gulf investment in Pakistan.

At the same time, Pakistan depends on oil and gas supplies that move through the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea. Both Iran and the Houthis have demonstrated the ability to disrupt those routes, giving Islamabad an incentive to avoid a serious deterioration in relations with Tehran even as it expands its security ties with Gulf states.

WARNING TO IRAN

Relations between Iran and nuclear-armed Pakistan have previously deteriorated into deadly confrontations. Two years ago, Iranian missile and drone attacks on what Tehran described as militant targets in Pakistan’s Balochistan province triggered retaliatory strikes by Islamabad. The episode briefly raised concerns about a wider conflict before tensions subsided.

This time, Pakistan is attempting to intervene before the situation escalates further.

According to Saudi, Pakistani and Iranian sources, Pakistan this week issued a warning to Iran urging Tehran to restrain its Houthi allies in Yemen. Pakistani army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir also spoke by telephone with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi on Thursday evening about “ways to restore diplomatic efforts to de-escalate on all fronts”, according to a Pakistani source.

“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.”

At a Thursday briefing, Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman Sajjad Haider Khan said Islamabad was not currently considering a military response to the Houthi attacks.

“Iran’s leadership has consistently appreciated Pakistan’s mediation efforts,” Khan told Reuters in response to a request for comment. “Pakistan has consistently opposed escalation and advocated restraint, dialogue and diplomacy.”

BALANCING ACT

Iranian officials have publicly welcomed Pakistan’s mediation efforts and said they do not regard the defense agreement as a threat. Privately, however, the situation appears more complicated, according to three Iranian sources familiar with the discussions. They said Pakistan may have genuine intentions but lacks the resources and negotiating experience of countries such as Qatar.

Iran’s foreign ministry did not respond to a request for comment.

There are indications that Islamabad is reassessing its position as it confronts the demands created by its expanding regional role.

Four people familiar with the discussions said that after Pakistan and Saudi Arabia concluded their initial defense pact last year, Kuwait sought a similar agreement. Pakistani officials, concerned about establishing deeper military commitments with another Gulf country vulnerable to Iranian attacks, reduced the scope of the negotiations, according to the sources.

Instead, Pakistan and Kuwait signed a more limited protocol in Islamabad last month focused on training, border security and capacity-building. The agreement did not provide the broader security guarantees Kuwait had initially sought.

Khan said Thursday that there were currently no plans to add additional countries to the wider Pakistan-Saudi-Turkey defense alliance.

MEDIATOR OR COMBATANT?

Farzana Shaikh, an associate fellow at Chatham House, questioned whether Iran’s confidence in Pakistan as a mediator had ever been as strong as some observers believed.

She said Pakistan “does not have the kind of wherewithal or indeed experience that Qatar and Oman would have brought to the table,” while arguing that Islamabad’s increased diplomatic role was driven less by its own diplomatic influence than by “the personal bonhomie” between President Donald Trump and Pakistani Field Marshal Asim Munir.

Trump has repeatedly described Munir as his “favorite field marshal,” following a Pakistani diplomatic campaign involving cryptocurrency agreements, U.S. access to rare minerals and counterterrorism cooperation.

Other analysts say those factors do not necessarily eliminate Pakistan’s potential usefulness as an intermediary.

Kamran Bokhari, a Washington-based analyst specializing in Pakistan-Iran relations, said Tehran communicates with Islamabad in part because Pakistan maintains close relationships with both Riyadh and Washington.

That alignment can allow Islamabad to carry messages that a genuinely neutral intermediary might not be able to deliver. Bokhari said this is precisely why Riyadh and Washington have relied on Islamabad to convey communications.

However, a significant escalation between Saudi forces and the Houthis could alter that calculation.

“Relaying and shaping ⁠messages is one ​thing,” said Bokhari, but “active air-defense or intelligence support is another, tipping Pakistan from stakeholder into combatant.”

Pakistan has the world’s seventh-largest military by active personnel and had already sent thousands of troops and a squadron of fighter aircraft to Saudi Arabia under its previous defense arrangement. With additional forces being deployed along Pakistan’s tense border with India and the country simultaneously fighting several insurgencies in its western provinces, Islamabad is now attempting to manage requests from other Gulf countries seeking comparable security commitments.

“Pakistani forces are stretched,” Bokhari said, making additional commitments “daunting.”