Turkey rules out launching attacks on Yemen from Saudi Arabia

Turkey will not send troops to Saudi Arabia to launch attacks on Yemen under the Mecca defence 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. 

Turkey, 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 defence 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 defence systems and electronic warfare equipment in the kingdom since last year to protect critical infrastructure, including energy facilities.

One senior Turkish official said Ankara would send additional equipment, technicians, emergency response teams and accompanying combat forces.

'We don't plan to send a large group of soldiers and have no plans to directly intervene in Yemen'

- Turkish official

The official said a 2010 military training agreement between Saudi Arabia and Turkey allows Ankara to deploy limited forces to the kingdom for technical purposes. Further deployments, however, would require parliamentary authorisation under the Turkish constitution.

A second Turkish official said Ankara planned to station forces at one or more command bases solely to provide defensive support to Saudi Arabia.

The officials said a limited number of Turkish special forces could be deployed to the kingdom once the Turkish parliament grants formal authorisation, which is expected later this month.

Separate sources familiar with the planning told MEE that, following parliamentary approval, Turkey would deploy an undisclosed number of experienced pilots and aircraft to Saudi Arabia to counter drones and ballistic missiles launched by the Houthis in Yemen.

“We don't plan to send a large group of soldiers and have no plans to directly intervene in Yemen,” the senior Turkish official said.

“Ankara still believes diplomatic efforts might bear fruit in coming months.”