Pravin Sawhney, Zulfiqar Ali: Saudi Arabia Asked Pakistan for Commandos. “No Reason Why the Regime Should Stand”

by Transition Protocol [10-8-2026].

Saudi Arabia has made an urgent request to Pakistan: send naval commandos to free up Bab al-Mandab. According to the host’s source, Pakistan has not said yes. Defence analyst Pravin Sawhney explains why a commando raid cannot hold the strait, what Pakistan’s troops will and will not do, and what is at stake if the regime in Riyadh does not survive the Houthi war.

Pravin Sawhney, returning after a week away, joins host Zulfiqar Ali to map the war that Sawhney calls the most dangerous one right now.

• The request: a senior Pakistani military source told the host that Riyadh asked for naval commandos. Sawhney: commandos “provide a breakthrough”; somebody else must “hold the ground”. That is not their job.
• The reply, as of the recording: the host’s sources say Pakistan has agreed to send troops to the holy sites, Mecca and Medina, and nowhere else. On 5 October Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkey pledged “rapid deployment” of forces in the kingdom; the statement does not specify their role.
• The verdict: Sawhney says he sees “no reason why the regime should stand”, except that Netanyahu and the United States need it — and that if the Gulf destabilizes, “everything is over for the Americans as well.”
• The Israeli stake: Netanyahu’s proposal, reported 31 March, to bypass Hormuz and Bab al-Mandab with pipelines across the Saudi peninsula to the Mediterranean.
• Washington: Axios reported a Camp David meeting on Friday 2 October on the Iran war and the Saudi–Houthi conflict. Sawhney’s read: “neither should fall.”
• The bill: oil, diesel and jet fuel; a midterm clock that ends on 3 November; and the host’s question on US debt, which the Treasury reported above $40 trillion on 19 August.

Sourcing note: the request and Pakistan’s reply are the host’s own reporting from a single source and have not been independently confirmed. The claim that the Houthis hold Bab al-Mandab is Sawhney’s; on 5 October Yemen’s government said it had retaken the coast up to Mocha, the Houthis called that baseless, and Reuters could not verify either side. The troop and aircraft figures are Sawhney’s and have not been independently checked. Only a meeting between Netanyahu and the UAE president on 27 September is confirmed; Saudi Arabia denied that a representative attended any wider meeting.