ANKARA — Turkey's foreign minister on Thursday ruled out sending troops to confront Yemen's Houthi forces, despite a defence pact with Saudi Arabia.

 

The Iran-backed fighters have launched a wave of attacks on Saudi Arabia since they began a major offensive in Yemen against the internationally recognised government there.

 

Turkey signed the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement with Pakistan and Saudi Arabia in August, committing the three countries to come to each other's aid in the event one were attacked.

 

"This is a defence agreement," said Hakan Fidan, adding: "If one of the countries is attacked, you support its defence. This is not an offensive agreement."

 

Turkey "will not send its troops to another country's territory to launch an attack", he stressed

 

Fidan said Turkish and Saudi military delegations would work together to assess what defensive measures might be needed, without giving details.

 

The agreement, which still needs parliamentary ratification in Turkey, links NATO's second-largest army, Gulf oil giant Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, the Muslim world's only nuclear-armed state.

 

While the renewed violence has raised questions over whether the pact could draw members into the conflict, Turkish officials have repeatedly played that down.

 

"NATO was not built in a day," a Turkish diplomatic source told AFP last month.