Turkey will not send troops to Saudi Arabia to launch attacks on Yemen under the Mecca defense pact, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on Thursday.
"This is not an offensive agreement. Turkey will not send troops to another country's territory to launch an attack there," he said during a live press conference in Ankara. Fidan added that possible Turkish deployments to Saudi Arabia would be only defensive in nature.
via APTurkey, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan agreed this week to jointly deploy forces and military equipment in a show of solidarity with Riyadh in the face of Houthi attacks from Yemen.
Fidan said military delegations would assess Saudi Arabia’s operational defense needs and determine what contributions Turkey and Pakistan could make.
“The necessary work to submit the Mecca agreement to the Turkish parliament has been concluded,” he said. “We have decided to forward it to parliament as soon as possible. We have essentially completed our own preparations.”
Middle East Eye reported on Tuesday that Turkey would send additional personnel, pilots and aircraft to help protect Saudi infrastructure in the coming weeks, with further deployments subject to parliamentary approval.
Officials told MEE that Turkey had maintained technical teams, air defense systems and electronic warfare equipment in the kingdom since last year to protect critical infrastruct
