Houthis Strike Saudi Oil Refinery Days After Sunni Defense Pact Signed

Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi movement has struck again inside Saudi Arabia, targeting Saudi Aramco's Jazan refinery with a drone just days after the kingdom formalized a sweeping new defense pact with Turkey and Pakistan. Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree confirmed the attack on the facility, which processes roughly 400,000 barrels of crude oil per day, marking yet another hit on a site the group has targeted before. In a separate statement, Saree said Houthi forces also carried out missile and drone strikes on the Yemeni Red Sea port city of Mocha, expanding the group's campaign across multiple fronts even as regional tensions escalate.

The attacks land just two days after Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Pakistan signed the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement, a mutual defense pact under which an armed attack on any one of the three nations would be treated as an attack on all three. The agreement, signed by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, was struck in direct response to growing regional instability stemming from the broader U.S.-Israeli confrontation with Iran. It remains unclear whether or how Turkey and Pakistan will factor into any Saudi response to this latest wave of Houthi strikes, and neither country has yet announced retaliatory action.

The renewed attacks come on the heels of a bloody week in Yemen, where Houthi strikes reportedly killed roughly 30 allied forces near Marib and wounded civilians in the Saudi border city of Najran. Analysts note the timing is unlikely to be coincidental, with the Houthis appearing to test the resolve of the newly formed Sunni coalition almost immediately after its formation. Saudi Arabia has not yet issued an official response to the Jazan refinery strike, but with energy infrastructure once again in the crosshairs, pressure is mounting on Riyadh, Ankara, and Islamabad to demonstrate that their new alliance carries real military weight rather than existing only on paper.