Saudi Arabia and Pakistan holding joint military exercise near Yemen border

Asia-Pacific, Middle East, News March 30, 2015 , by IRIA No Comments

Saudi and Pakistani forces attend a joint military drill near the kingdom’s border with its impoverished neighbor.

The military’s statement on Monday says the drill is taking part near the city of Taif, in the mountains near Mecca in the western part of Saudi Arabia. It has been underway since March 19, with 292 Pakistani troops taking part.

The drill is an annual event and was held in Pakistan last year.

The exercise, dubbed Samsam-5, comes as a Saudi-led coalition of Sunni Arab countries is targeting Iran-backed Shiite rebels and their allies in Yemen in a campaign of airstrikes that began last week.

The official Saudi Press Agency reported the development on Monday with Major General Fares bin Abdullah, a senior Saudi commander, telling the agency that the drills were part of a series of pre-planned exercises aimed at enhancing the kingdom’s military efficiency.

He, however, claimed, “The exercise is not related to any current military operations.”

Pakistan has not decided yet whether to participate in the Saudi-led invasion of Yemen.

Saudi Arabia launched airstrikes on its southern neighbor at Wednesday midnight to defeat Houthi movement’s Ansarullah fighters. Thousands of Yemenis hit the streets on the following day to vent anger at what they call foreign intervention in their country.

Shiite rebels, known as Houthis, wearing an army uniform, ride on an armed truck to patrol the international airport in Sanaa, Yemen, Saturday, March 28, 2015. Yemen’s President Abed Raboo Mansour Hadi, speaking at an Arab summit in Egypt on Saturday, called Shiite rebels who forced him to flee the country “puppets of Iran,” directly blaming the Islamic Republic for the chaos there and demanding airstrikes against rebel positions continue until they surrender. (AP Photo/Hani Mohammed)

Riyadh says it has launched the airstrikes to defend the “legitimate government” of Yemen’s fugitive president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, who fled to the Saudi capital on March 26, upon his request. Riyadh has vowed to press ahead with the bombing until Hadi is reinstated.

Hadi stepped down in January and refused to reconsider the decision despite calls by Ansarullah revolutionaries. The Yemeni parliament did not approve his resignation, however.

The latest airstrikes targeted the capital, Sana’a. Saudi-led fighter jets have also pounded the port of Mocha in the Ta’izz Province and an air defense camp in Ma’rib Province.

Nuclear-armed Pakistan shares a long border with Iran, considered to be the center of Shiite power, and has a warm relationship with Saudi Arabia, Iran’s main regional rival. An estimated 20 percent of Pakistanis are Shi’ite.

“We have already pledged full support to Saudi Arabia in its operation against rebels and will join the coalition,” the Pakistani official said.

A Pakistani team, to be led by Defense Minister Khawaja Asif and foreign policy chief Sartaj Aziz, had been due to arrive in Saudi Arabia on Monday but delayed the trip at the request of the Saudis, the official told Reuters.

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