In recent days, Yemen's Ansar Allah has stepped up attacks on parts of Yemen that are controlled by Saudi-backed forces.

Posted by Tyler Durden, Authored by Pepe Escobar via 'Geopolitics Prime' substack,

The Mecca Sunni NATO pact between Saudi Arabia, Turkiye and Pakistan remains a puzzle. Or dodgy sub-standard theatre – complete with photo ops and sparse intel sharing. The full text has not been released. Everything is quite vague, only stressing “collective deterrence”.

Islamabad has no objection to Iran and Egypt joining the mutual defense agreement signed with Ankara and Riyadh, Pakistan’s ambassador to Moscow, Faisal Niaz Tirmizi, told Al Mayadeen on Wednesday.

Tirmizi said the agreement with Saudi Arabia and Türkiye “is not a hostile pact directed against any country, but rather an effort to establish a regional security architecture.”

Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis claimed responsibility for a drone attack on Saudi Aramco's $21 billion Jazan refinery, located on Saudi Arabia's southwestern Red Sea coast, roughly 44 miles from the Yemeni border. The facility is strategically important because it allows Aramco to export refined products through the Red Sea without transiting the Strait of Hormuz.

Turkish leaders have insisted that the new trilateral defence pact with Saudi Arabia and Pakistan is not directed at Iran.

Turkiye’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on Saturday that the pact does not identify Iran, or any other country, as a common threat.

Yemen’s Ansar Allah, also known as the Houthis, launched significant strikes on Thursday targeting military camps in central Yemen belonging to the Emergency Forces, an anti-Houthi force recently created by Saudi Arabia that operates under the command of the Saudi military.

Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkey signed a joint defence agreement in Mecca on Friday, wedding ​Sunni Muslim U.S. allies alarmed at a regional conflagration that has rained missile fire onto Gulf oil exporters.

Iran and its allies have been firing on Saudi Arabia and other Gulf ‌states, and blockading their energy shipments, since the U.S. and Israel attacked it on February 28 in a major escalation after years of regional tumult.

by Jason Ditz, antiwar.com

War is heating back up as US-brokered talks adjourn for the month.

While the US-brokered Israel-Lebanon talks didn’t actually wrap up until Thursday, Israel was already scaling the war back up substantially on Wednesday, giving the impression that the relative reduction in violence of recent weeks is coming to an end.

by Dave De Camp, antiwar.com

The strikes killed more than 30 members of the Emergency Forces, which was recently formed by Saudi Arabia

Yemen’s Ansar Allah, also known as the Houthis, launched significant strikes on Thursday targeting military camps in central Yemen belonging to the Emergency Forces, an anti-Houthi force recently created by Saudi Arabia that operates under the command of the Saudi military.

Yesterday witnessed at least the eighth Saudi oil tanker attacked by the Houthis since the maritime blockade began on July 22, which is being followed by reports the Yemeni rebel group backed by Iran could be preparing for all-out war with Saudi Arabia.