By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has demanded that Yemen’s Houthi rebels “immediately and unconditionally” cease all attacks on Saudi Arabia, after a missile strike on Riyadh damaged a skyscraper belonging to the oil giant Aramco.
In a statement on Monday, the Foreign Office said the targeting of civilian infrastructure showed a “reckless disregard for human life and regional security”. It commended the “vigilance and swift response” of Saudi authorities in “confronting this unjustifiable and unprovoked aggression”.
“Fortunately, no casualties were reported,” the ministry said.
Islamabad said it stood “resolutely” with the leadership and people of the kingdom and would “reaffirm our full support for all measures necessary to safeguard its security, sovereignty and territorial integrity”.
“The security of Saudi Arabia is of paramount importance to Pakistan,” the statement said. “Our commitment to the safety and well-being of our Saudi brothers and sisters remains steadfast.”
The Saudi energy ministry said an administrative building belonging to Aramco in the capital was the target of an “attempted attack” on Sunday. It said falling shrapnel caused limited damage, with no injuries or deaths.
A Reuters witness saw windows blown out across several floors of the tower, one of the tallest in the King Abdullah Financial District. “Aramco tower in KAFD has been targeted, that’s the sure thing,” another eyewitness told AFP. Two further witnesses confirmed damage to the building.
Turki al-Malki, spokesperson for the Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthis, said air defences had “intercepted and destroyed two ballistic missiles launched by the Houthi terrorist militia towards Riyadh”. The coalition later said it had also destroyed two cruise missiles over the capital and the south of the kingdom. Loud explosions were heard across Riyadh. The Houthis claimed responsibility.
The strike came hours after the education ministry announced that pupils in Riyadh would return to classrooms after weeks of remote learning, following an earlier wave of attacks.
The financial district is one of the most visible symbols of the kingdom’s economic and social reform drive, a cluster of glass towers, high-end shops and green spaces. It houses some of Saudi Arabia’s biggest domestic companies and international firms such as Goldman Sachs, as well as the headquarters of the Public Investment Fund, the sovereign wealth fund, and the Saudi stock exchange.
The attack was not the first on Aramco. Houthi forces have repeatedly hit its tankers, refineries, storage sites and headquarters in recent months, and the company’s headquarters in Dhahran suffered extensive damage in a separate attack in October. Saudi authorities said a strike on Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport on 10 October killed 13 people and wounded more than 300.
Hostilities resumed in July, shattering a 2022 UN-brokered truce, and form part of the wider Middle East war that followed the US and Israeli attacks on Iran in February. The United Nations says the fighting has displaced more than 308,000 people across 10 Yemeni provinces since the start of August.
The day before the Riyadh strike, the Houthi-run health ministry said Saudi air strikes had killed at least 33 people near the capital, Sanaa. Saudi authorities said they were investigating the report.
Pakistan has condemned Houthi attacks on the kingdom several times, calling them a grave violation of its sovereignty. Islamabad and Riyadh have signed two defence pacts aimed at collective deterrence: the Strategic Mutual Defence Agreement between the two countries, and the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement, which also includes Turkey. The Mecca pact, signed in August, commits its members to treat an attack on one as an attack on all.
Under that alliance, Pakistani, Saudi and Turkish leaders met in Riyadh last month and agreed to deploy forces and capabilities rapidly in the kingdom. In mid-October, the military spokesman, Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, said Pakistan was providing “whatever support is needed” to defend Saudi Arabia.
The director general of the Inter-Services Public Relations also stressed that all members were “absolutely clear […] that this alliance has no offensive intent; it is purely defensive”.
Riyadh is meanwhile widening its circle of military partners. The Associated Press reported on Sunday, citing three officials with knowledge of the plans, that Syria is preparing to send about 600 special forces fighters to Saudi Arabia to deploy along its border. Syrian military advisers are already in the kingdom, the officials said, though a Syrian diplomatic official said the agreement centred on training. Saudi officials did not immediately comment. Two of the Syrian officials said Damascus had decided to join the Mecca pact, though a regional official said talks were continuing.
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