The
Pakistani team, to be led by Defence Minister Khawaja Asif and foreign policy
chief Sartaj Aziz, was due to leave either on Monday or in the next few days,
security officials told Reuters.
A
high-level Pakistani defence delegation was about to leave for Saudi Arabia on
Monday as the government in Islamabad considers whether to join a Saudi-led
military campaign inYemen.
Pakistan
evacuated about 500 of its nationals by plane from Yemen on Sunday during a
brief pause in air strikes by the Saudi-led military coalition against Shi'ite
Muslim Houthi forces, a Saudi military spokesman said.
"There can be no decision (on
joining the military campaign) before the delegation's visit," one
official said.
He said
there were already around 750-800 Pakistani servicemen in Saudi Arabia but none
were combat troops. He declined to comment about their duties and it was not
immediately clear what kind of military support Saudi Arabia was seeking.
Pakistan
is a regional ally of Saudi Arabia, the main Sunni Muslim power in the Gulf,
but has yet to commit itself publicly to military support to Riyadh's campaign
in Yemen.
"Saudi Arabia had always helped
Pakistan like an elder brother," Asif told a seminar in Lahore shown on
television channels. "Pakistan will extend all support to Saudi Arabia if
the country's security is threatened."
Prime
Minister Nawaz Sharif, in a telephone call with Saudi King Salman on Saturday,
offered "all potentials of the Pakistan army", media quoted the Saudi
Press Agency as saying.
World Bulletin
