Saudi Arabia cancels next week’s ‘Davos in the Desert’ conference after series of Houthi attacks

Mohammed Benmansour/Reuters

In a major setback for the kingdom’s economic ambitions, Saudi Arabia has canceled a major conference scheduled for next week in Riyadh amid a wave of attacks by Iran-backed Houthi militants.

Known as “Davos in the Desert,” the Future Investment Initiative will now take place on an undisclosed date in 2027, according to a statement from the conference shared via email with CNN’s Becky Anderson.

Normally, the annual event showcases Saudi Arabia’s financial muscle and growing role on the world stage. Wall Street leaders including JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser, Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon and BlackRock boss Larry Fink were all scheduled to speak at next week’s event. However, the FII decided to cancel the October 26-29 conference in the wake of a series of Houthi attacks on the Saudi capital, including a deadly missile strike earlier this month on Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport. The decision comes after a series of Houthi missile and drone attacks on Saudi airports, energy infrastructure and other strategic sites, prompting a number of countries to issue travel warnings. Saudi Arabia and Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis have exchanged near-daily missile, drone and air strikes in recent week, with the conflict escalating sharply. Some boards of directors may have balked at sending their CEOs into Saudi Arabia in the midst of the deadly battle with the Houthis.

“This decision has been taken to ensure that our milestone tenth edition delivers the full scale, quality and impact that our partners, members, speakers and delegates expect,” the FII Institute, which runs the conference, said in the statement. Organizers said the new dates in 2027 for the event “will be communicated very soon” and all registrations and partnerships “remain valid.” The cancellation of this year’s event is a blow to Saudi Arabia’s efforts to diversify the oil-rich country’s economy away from oil and natural gas. The deteriorating security situation undermines decades of effort to attract Western capital to the Middle East and may herald a period of investment uncertainty that would be detrimental to the whole region.

穆罕默德·本曼苏尔/路透社

沙特阿拉伯因伊朗支持的胡塞武装分子发动的一系列袭击，取消了原定于下周在利雅得举行的一场重要会议，这对沙特王国的经济雄心造成了重大挫折。

据大会通过电子邮件与 CNN 记者 Becky Anderson 分享的一份声明显示，被称为“沙漠达沃斯”的未来投资倡议将于 2027 年某个未公开的日期举行。

通常情况下，这项年度盛会旨在展示沙特阿拉伯的金融实力及其在世界舞台上日益增长的影响力。包括摩根大通首席执行官杰米·戴蒙、花旗集团首席执行官简·弗雷泽、高盛首席执行官大卫·所罗门和贝莱德首席执行官拉里·芬克在内的华尔街领袖原定于下周出席此次盛会并发表演讲。然而，鉴于胡塞武装对沙特首都利雅得发动了一系列袭击，包括本月初对利雅得哈立德国王国际机场的致命导弹袭击，金融情报机构（FII）决定取消原定于10月26日至29日举行的会议。此前，胡塞武装对沙特机场、能源基础设施和其他战略要地发动了一系列导弹和无人机袭击，促使多个国家发布了旅行警告。近几周来，沙特阿拉伯和也门胡塞武装（伊朗支持的武装组织）几乎每天都进行导弹、无人机和空袭，冲突急剧升级。一些公司的董事会可能不愿在与胡塞武装的激烈战斗中派遣首席执行官前往沙特阿拉伯。

“做出这一决定是为了确保我们具有里程碑意义的第十届大会能够达​​到合作伙伴、会员、演讲嘉宾和与会代表所期望的规模、质量和影响力，”负责举办此次大会的FII研究所在声明中表示。组织者表示，大会将于2027年重新举办，“具体日期将很快公布”，所有注册和合作“仍然有效”。今年大会的取消对沙特阿拉伯致力于摆脱对石油和天然气依赖、实现经济多元化的努力无疑是一次打击。日益恶化的安全局势破坏了数十年来吸引西方资本进入中东的努力，并可能预示着一段投资不确定性时期，这将对整个地区造成不利影响。