Pakistan is “not in a hurry” to decide whether to join the Saudi-led coalition against rebels in Yemen, the prime minister said yesterday, before a round of shuttle diplomacy involving Iran and Turkey.

Nawaz Sharif told a special parliamentary debate on Yemen he thought the diplomatic efforts planned for the coming days would yield results. Saudi Arabia has asked its longstanding ally Pakistan to contribute planes, ships and ground troops to the operation against Shiite Huthi rebels in Yemen.

But Pakistan has resisted so far, calling for a diplomatic solution and saying it does not want to take part in any conflict that would worsen sectarian divisions in the Muslim world.

Iran, the major Shiite power, has strongly criticised the military operation in Yemen by a coalition of largely Sunni Muslim nations. It accuses Saudi Arabia of sowing instability with its air campaign.

Sharif has said any Pakistani participation would need the backing of parliament and convened a special session to debate the matter. He told lawmakers yesterday that he did not want to “manipulate you to get a mandate”. “Take your time, we are not in a hurry, we will take all your good points and I want the parliament also to say something about demands of our friends,” said Sharif, who was sheltered by Saudi Arabia when overthrown in a 1999 military coup.

Sharif met his Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu in Ankara on Friday and said afterwards both countries wanted a peaceful resolution to the Yemen crisis.

More talks involving Turkey, Iran and Pakistan are planned in the coming days, with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan due to meet the leadership in Tehran on Tuesday.

Sharif told parliament he expected these diplomatic efforts quickly to bear fruit. “We are actually waiting for an answer, which I expect will arrive by tomorrow,” Sharif said, adding that Turkey may send its foreign minister or convey the message by phone.

“We will see what we can do after that. We might visit other Muslim countries together.” Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif is due in Islamabad on Wednesday to discuss the situation.

Pakistan faces a tricky dilemma over intervention in Yemen. It has long enjoyed military ties with Riyadh and has benefited hugely from the oil-rich kingdom’s largesse over the years. Meanwhile, loyalist forces backed by Saudi-led naval shelling thwarted a new rebel assault in Yemen’s main southern city early yesterday as medics and officials

reported 18 dead in fighting across the south. Militia loyal to fugitive President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi battled rebels attempting to advance on a port in the city’s Mualla district, witnesses said. Four loyalist militiamen were killed and 12 wounded, a medic at a military hospital told AFP. Six Shiite Huthi rebels were killed, an army source said.

Residents said that the loyalists had pushed the rebels further from the port, as warships of the Saudi-led coalition shelled rebel positions across Aden.

Mualla is not Aden’s main port but it has been the focus of fierce fighting in recent days. On Monday, medics and officials said 53 people had been killed in fighting in the area over the previous 24 hours.

In Abyan province further east, armed tribesmen loyal to Hadi killed eight rebels in an attack on their convoy, provincial governor El-Khedr al-Saeedi said.
He said that loyalist tribes and militia in Abyan and neighbouring Lahj province were sending fighters to

Aden to back Hadi’s forces in the city. During the night, Saudi-led warplanes carried out fresh strikes on the rebel-held Al-Anad air base in Lahj province, pro-Hadi General Muthanna Jawas said.