Four Nations Meet in Tehran as Saudi Coalition Intercepts Houthi Missiles

Saudi Arabia, Iran, Turkey and Pakistan agreed on Monday to keep talking about regional security in Tehran, hours before the Saudi-led coalition said it intercepted three Houthi ballistic missiles aimed at the kingdom's Eastern Province. Four drones heading toward Saudi Arabia's south were also shot down, coalition spokesman Colonel Turki al-Maliki said early Tuesday, with no casualties reported. The coalition said it downed three more drones over Riyadh and southern Saudi Arabia on Monday evening.

The Tehran session was the first high-level contact between Iran and the three signatories of the Mecca mutual defence pact, signed in August, since the war that began with US and Israeli strikes on Iran spread to Saudi Arabia and Yemen. Saudi Arabia sent Defence Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman, the younger brother of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Pakistan sent army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir, and Turkey sent intelligence chief Ibrahim Kalin. Iranian state media published pictures of President Masoud Pezeshkian, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, at the meetings.

A joint statement issued late Monday said the four countries agreed to continue dialogue to strengthen cooperation, including for peace and security in the region, according to Iranian state media. Saudi Arabia said the visit aimed to open negotiating channels to prevent the return of military escalation. A senior Pakistani security official told Reuters the talks focused on building a regional non-aggression network, with the agenda also covering US-Iran negotiations, Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia, the Strait of Hormuz and the US blockade of Iranian ports.

Another Pakistani official told Reuters that Field Marshal Munir, with US President Donald Trump's blessing to pursue diplomacy, had presented Iran with a proposal that would offer something to both Washington and Tehran. The official did not give details. The states in the Mecca pact, along with Qatar, could act as guarantors if the proposal was accepted, the official said. Rezaei said the visit showed that American threats have little impact on countries around the world, and spoke of a new and positive atmosphere in the region.

The talks unfolded against a sharpening dispute between Washington and Tehran. Trump said on Friday the US may strike Iran again. Mediation by Pakistan and Qatar produced an interim peace agreement in June, but fighting between Iran and the US resumed. Conflict then flared between the Iran-aligned Houthis and Saudi Arabia, opening a new front in Yemen. The Houthis seized strategic areas along Yemen's Red Sea coast from Saudi-backed government forces in an offensive last month, prompting a counteroffensive, and Saudi Arabia has since intensified its strikes.

The Houthis have struck Saudi airports, ports and oil facilities. An attack on King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh this month killed at least 13 people and wounded more than 300, the deadliest attack on the kingdom in more than a decade. Earlier on Monday, the Houthis claimed another strike on the Riyadh airport and on crude oil pumping stations in western and eastern Saudi Arabia; the coalition said those missiles were intercepted and destroyed. The coalition also said it launched retaliatory attacks that destroyed five tunnels used to store ballistic missiles, four missile launchers and a missile depot. There was no immediate comment from the Houthis.

The wider war has restricted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz and pushed up oil and petrol prices. Egypt, a financial and political partner of Saudi Arabia, moved closer to the fight when its parliament authorised the military on Monday to help defend the kingdom. Prince Khalid bin Salman said the visit to Tehran was meant to open negotiating channels to prevent the return of military escalation.