Yasser76
Elite Member
One needs to give Saudis some credit for shrewdness here, despite being heavily bombed by Iran they did not strike back and helped Pakistan a lot in getting both sides to the table, now Pak repaying the favour by reassuring the Saudis. This now can give you an idea of the panic in Abu Dhabi should things kick off again, they are literally defenceless....
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has expressed support for the Iranian negotiators in Pakistan, saying the delegation will “negotiate bravely” in defence of the country’s interests.
“In any case, our service to the people will not stop for a moment, and whatever the outcome of the negotiations, the government will stand by the people,” Pezeshkian wrote on X.
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14m ago
(15:20 GMT)
Pakistani aircraft deployment to Saudi Arabia highlights trust between two countries
By Abid Hussain
Reporting from Islamabad, Pakistan
The arrival of Pakistani air force jets and C-130s in Saudi Arabia signals that regional powers are already preparing for the possibility in case the Islamabad talks collapse, a defence analyst tells Al Jazeera.
The deployment, announced earlier today by the Saudi Ministry of Defense but yet to be commented upon by the Pakistani military, marks the first invocation of the Strategic Mutual Defence Agreement (SMDA), signed between Riyadh and Islamabad in September 2025.
Under the pact, both countries committed to treating any act of aggression against one as an act of aggression against both.
“The deployment of a Pakistan Air Force contingent in eastern Saudi Arabia under the SMDA indicates that while talks are under way in Islamabad, regional actors are gearing up for the next phase of regional conflict should the talks fail,” Muhammad Faisal, a defence analyst at the University of Sydney, told Al Jazeera.
“Stakes are high for both the negotiators and the regional actors tracking developments.”
Faisal added that the deployment also reflected the depth of trust between the two countries. “The SMDA is being operationalised at the very moment Islamabad is hosting talks between Tehran and Washington. Saudi Arabia remains reassured about any outcome of the talks now,” he said.
