ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N)-led federal government in Islamabad will agree to a Saudi request for military help for its campaign against Shia Houthi rebels in Yemen.
Talking to the Financial Times on Monday, an unnamed federal minister said that the government is “close to deciding on how many resources will be deployed.”
His statement came when a joint session of the Parliament is underway in Islamabad to discuss Yemen conflict and develop consensus strategy on the issue.
In his address at the parliament’s joint session on Monday, the Federal Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif told that Saudi Arabia wanted Pakistani warplanes, warships and soldiers to fight the Houthi insurgency in Yemen.
However, the defence minister did not tell if Pakistan would agree or what the extent of any deployments might be.
Speaking on the floor of the House
on Tuesday, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said that the government was not in a hurry to decide whether to join the Saudi-led coalition against rebels in Yemen.
The prime minister assured the Parliament that the government would formulate its policy on the Middle East crisis keeping in view sentiments of the elected representatives.
On March 26, a Saudi-led regional coalition launched airstrikes against Iran-backed Shiite Houthi rebels in Yemen after the Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi was forced to flee the country and asked for an international intervention to reinstate his rule.
Later in her weekly news briefing in Islamabad, the Foreign Office Spokesperson Tasnim Aslam confirmed that Saudi Arabia had contacted Pakistan to provide assistance to overcome on-going crisis in Yemen. She said that Pakistan was examining Saudi Arabia’s request to join the Gulf-led operation against Shia Houthi rebels in Yemen.
