Houthi missiles fly toward Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province right after the Tehran meeting; Pakistani officials speak of a “non-aggression network” with guarantors

The Tehran four-way meeting had just ended with a pledge to continue the dialogue when a new Houthi attack came, this time toward Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province. In the early hours of Tuesday, October 27, the spokesman of the coalition for the restoration of legitimacy in Yemen, Brig. Gen. Turki al-Maliki, announced that Saudi air defences intercepted and destroyed three ballistic missiles launched by the Houthis toward the region.

In a later statement, al-Maliki said four drones heading for the kingdom’s Southern Region were also shot down. Since Monday evening, three more drones had been reported over Riyadh and the south, while on Tuesday morning the Houthis claimed strikes on pumping stations of the East-West pipeline and on Riyadh airport, with the coalition responding with an operation against tunnels and missile launchers in Yemen, as Geopolitiki reported. The Eastern Province is not a new target: last week’s attack on King Fahd airport in Dammam left dead and injured.

The timing does not go unnoticed

Monday’s meeting, with Saudi Defence Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman, Pakistan’s army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir and Turkish intelligence chief Ibrahim Kalin facing the Iranian leadership, was the first high-level contact between Iran and the three countries of the Mecca mutual defence pact signed in August, after the war spread to Saudi Arabia and Yemen. The joint statement, published by Iranian state media late on Monday, spoke of continuing the dialogue “for peace and security in the region”. Geopolitiki covered the delegations’ arrival in Tehran.

What was discussed behind closed doors is beginning to emerge from Pakistani sources. Pakistani sources quoted by international media say that a senior Pakistani security official told Reuters the talks focused on creating a regional “non-aggression network”. Also discussed were the US-Iran negotiations, the Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia, the Strait of Hormuz and the US blockade of Iranian ports. A second Pakistani official said Munir, with Donald Trump’s blessing for a diplomatic effort, presented in Tehran a proposal that gives something to both sides, without the official giving details. If accepted, the countries of the Mecca pact together with Qatar could act as guarantors.

On the Iranian side, Mohsen Rezaei saw in the visit proof that American “threats have little impact” on the world’s countries and spoke of a “new and positive climate” in the region. Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei, who had said earlier that the meeting was proposed when Munir visited Tehran the previous week, described it as a possible first step toward regional security arrangements.

US security alert for Saudi Arabia

Meanwhile the US diplomatic mission issued on Tuesday, October 27 a new security alert covering the whole country. It recalls that since October 23 the State Department has ordered the departure of non-emergency personnel and their families, because of Houthi attacks on civilian airports and critical infrastructure. US government employees need special permission to use any Saudi airport, may not approach within 20 miles of the Yemeni border, and need permission to travel to the Jazan, Asir and Najran provinces and to the cities of Qatif, Yanbu and Taif.

Riyadh’s King Khalid airport has been operating partially since October 23, for domestic and some international flights of national carriers, while part of the flights has been moved to Prince Naif bin Abdulaziz airport in Qassim. Jeddah and Dammam airports operate with delays and cancellations. The mission also relays a warning from Saudi Arabia’s Interior Ministry that filming or publishing material from interceptions and impact sites carries legal liability, noting that US citizens have already been detained for this.