Pakistan committed to Saudi Arabia and holy mosques' defence, says DG ISPR

The director general of Inter-Services Public Relations has said Pakistan is committed to the defence of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Harmain Sharifain, according to reports carried by Radio Pakistan and GNN.

Both outlets credited the remark to the DG ISPR and published it under the same headline. Neither report gave the venue, the audience or the occasion for the statement, and neither carried its full text.

Neither outlet mentioned a new deployment, a fresh defence agreement or any change in the number of Pakistani military personnel serving in Saudi Arabia. No reason was given for the timing of the remark.

The ISPR's own account of the statement was not available beyond the two reports. It was not clear whether the DG ISPR spoke at a briefing, at a ceremony or in an interview.

Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have kept close military ties for decades. Pakistani officers have served in the kingdom on training and advisory missions, and Riyadh has been a regular source of financial support for Islamabad, including deposits with the State Bank of Pakistan and deferred payments for oil imports.

Harmain Sharifain is the term used in Pakistan for the two holy mosques in Makkah and Madinah, and successive governments and military spokesmen have publicly framed the kingdom's security in those terms.

Neither report said which regional development, if any, the statement was responding to, or whether it followed talks with Saudi officials. No date was given for when the DG ISPR made the remark.

The two published accounts consisted of the same single sentence, with no accompanying detail on the scope of the commitment or on any consultation with the federal government.