- Saudi defence minister says attacks do not serve region’s stability.
- Khalid bin Salman hopes Iran will show wisdom, avoid “miscalculation”.
- Pak-Saudi defence pact treats attack on one as aggression against both.
Chief of Defence Forces Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir and Saudi Defence Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman held a meeting in which both sides discussed Iranian attacks on the kingdom within the framework of the joint strategic defence agreement between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.
In a statement posted on X early Saturday, Khalid bin Salman said the meeting focused on ways to stop the attacks, which he said do not serve the security and stability of the region.
The meeting follows an escalation of tensions in the Middle East after the United States and Israel launched attacks on Iran on February 28, with Tehran retaliating by targeting US bases across the Gulf region, including Saudi Arabia, with missiles and drones.
“I met with His Excellency the Chief of Defence Forces, Chief of the Pakistani Army, Field Marshal Asim Munir,” the Saudi defence czar wrote on his X post.
He added that there is hope that the Iranian side will prioritise wisdom and reason and refrain from “wrong calculations”.
“We discussed the Iranian attacks on the kingdom within the framework of the joint strategic defence agreement between our two brotherly countries, and ways to stop these attacks, which do not serve the security and stability of the region, hoping that the Iranian side will prioritise wisdom and reason and refrain from wrong calculations.”
Pakistan and Saudi Arabia signed the landmark Strategic Mutual Defence Agreement (SMDA) in September last year, which treats an attack on either nation as an act of aggression against both.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had inked the pact in Riyadh, further strengthening the decades-old security partnership.
The Saudi Defence Ministry said a number of drones had been shot down that were targeting the Shayba oil field in the Empty Quarter on Saturday, according to a Saudi media report.
A drone attacked the US embassy in Riyadh on Tuesday, causing a minor fire, but no one was hurt in the incident. However, Iran’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Alireza Enayati, categorically denied that his country attacked the American mission.
“We confirmed that Iran has no role in the attack on the US embassy in Riyadh,” the ambassador told AFP.
