Saudi Arabia and Syria signed a defense cooperation agreement on Nov. 4, as the kingdom continues to face escalating missile and drone attacks from Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi terrorist group.
The Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the two countries also signed agreements and memorandums of understanding on agriculture, environmental protection, infrastructure, housing and financial services.
The deals were announced during Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa’s visit to Riyadh, his second trip to Saudi Arabia in less than a month. Neither country disclosed details of the defense agreement.
The visit took place amid fighting between U.S. ally Saudi Arabia and Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis that escalated in July, following a period of relative calm that persisted after a U.N.-brokered truce formally expired in October 2022.
The fighting has increased risks to shipping through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a critical maritime route connecting the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and providing access to the Suez Canal.
Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials said in the Nov. 4 statement that Saudi Arabia and Syria urged an immediate end to actions threatening navigation in the Red Sea, the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, and the Strait of Hormuz.
Regional Support
Regional partners have stepped up support for Saudi Arabia as the kingdom responds to renewed Houthi attacks.
Last week, Egypt’s Parliament authorized President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to take measures to help defend Saudi Arabia, although lawmakers did not specify what form that assistance would take.
Riyadh is also coordinating with Pakistan and Turkey under the Mecca agreement, which includes a collective defense clause under which an armed attack on one member would be treated as an attack on all.
Last month, the pact’s members met in Riyadh and agreed to ensure the rapid deployment of military forces and capabilities inside Saudi Arabia.
Saudi army artillery fire shells toward Yemen from a post close to the Saudi-Yemeni border, in southwestern Saudi Arabia, on April 13, 2015. (Fayez Nureldine/AFP/Getty Images)
U.S. President Donald Trump has previously said Washington might join Saudi attacks against the Houthis. Last month, Trump said a decision would be made quickly following a Houthi attack on King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh.
Latest Fighting
Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said on Nov. 4 that the group had carried out a series of attacks against Saudi targets over the past 24 hours.
He said the group launched a drone attack on a Saudi military radar site near Jizan and fired ballistic missiles at a military camp in Najran and a Border Guard headquarters in Jizan.
Saree said the Houthis also struck King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh with a ballistic missile, causing “significant damage.”
In October, a Houthi attack on Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport killed 13 people.
Thick black smoke and flames rise from a fire at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Oct. 8, 2026. (UGC via AP)
The claims could not be independently verified.
Saudi Arabia said its air defenses have continued to intercept Houthi attacks. Turki Al-Maliki, a spokesperson for the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, said on Nov. 5 that air defense systems intercepted and destroyed a ballistic missile launched by the Houthis toward the Medina region.
On Nov. 3, the coalition said it intercepted and destroyed a drone heading toward Saudi Arabia’s southern region, and one drone targeting the eastern region.
Saudi-led coalition spokesperson Turki al-Maliki speaks during a news conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Dec. 26, 2021. (Ahmed Yosri/Reuters)
Saudi Arabia also shut down its East–West Crude Oil Pipeline in September as a precaution after a drone attack that Riyadh and Baghdad said originated in Iraq.
