BEIRUT (Dispatches) -- Ankara is set to submit a “mandate” to its parliament allowing the deployment of Turkish military personnel to Saudi Arabia as part of the Mecca Defense Pact, an anonymous parliamentarian told Reuters on Thursday. 
The MP, belonging to the Turkish president Justice and Development Party (AKP), said “the mandate would be sent to parliament once a bill ratifying the accord has been approved.”
“No Turkish troops deployed to other countries under the pact would take part in offensive operations. Technical personnel and experts would be sent initially to help with air defenses, electronic warfare technologies, and other defensive support,” the lawmaker added.
Reuters had cited sources earlier saying that Ankara’s contribution to the war on Yemen “was expected to be limited to military equipment, intelligence sharing and weapons systems,” adding that “no other form of deployment had taken place under the alliance so far.”
The new Reuters report coincides with a brutal and deadly Saudi escalation against Yemen, which began in July.
Yemeni forces have since launched a massive, ongoing retaliatory campaign of missile and drone strikes against Saudi Arabia’s bases, airports, and energy facilities.
They have also inflicted heavy losses on Saudi-backed forces inside Yemen, capturing much of the western Yemeni coast, Bab el-Mandab, and several Red Sea islands in September. 
This week, the Turkish government submitted the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement to parliament, binding Ankara, Riyadh, and Islamabad to mutual military role in the aggression against Yemen indefinitely, with no exit allowed for the first decade.
Thousands of Pakistani soldiers are already in Saudi Arabia. Recent reports said Pakistani jets have reportedly been striking Yemen, yet Islamabad denied this.
Turkish reports have said Ankara has already deployed personnel and equipment to Saudi Arabia as the aggression intensifies.
According to the Turkiye Gazetesi, more than 200 military personnel, along with significant quantities of Turkish electronic warfare systems and ground- and air-defense missiles, have been transferred to Saudi Arabia since the Mecca pact was formed.
Turkish missile systems are reportedly being used extensively against Ansarallah and to enhance the Saudi-backed fugitive regime’s combat capabilities.
The Turkish report also said hundreds of takfiri terrorists from Syria have been deployed to the Saudi-backed side in Yemen. The extremist-led, Turkish-backed regime of Abu Muhammad al-Jolani in Damascus has denied this.
Earlier this month, the Ansarallah-led Yemeni Armed Forces (YAF) said it shot down a Turkish Bayraktar drone.