Riyadh is reportedly pressing Pakistan to take action against Iran, after Saudi crude oil production facilities were said to have come under attack from Iran. Saudi leaders have pointed to a mutual security agreement signed in 2025 to justify the call.
Saudi Arabia and Pakistan are close partners, and the pact states that an attack on either country would be treated as an attack on the other. With Saudi claiming it is facing Iranian strikes, Riyadh is said to want Islamabad to respond under the terms of the agreement.
Senior Saudi government figures recently voiced this position in an interview to a Canadian news channel, according to the report. The development has created a major political and security headache for Pakistan.
The report notes that Iran has a Shia Muslim majority, while Pakistan has more than 30 million Shia Muslims. Any Pakistani move against Iran could trigger domestic unrest, worsen Pakistan’s already strained economy, and raise the risk of retaliation along the two countries’ roughly 900-km shared border.
Against this backdrop, the report suggests Pakistan is choosing to stay on the sidelines rather than act on the agreement.
