Saudi Arabia’s $900 billion sovereign wealth fund, the PIF, has backed out of a deal that would have provided significant financial relief to the cash-strapped Metropolitan Opera, Met officials announced on Thursday.

What happened: Peter Gelb, general manager of the Met, the best-known opera company in the United States, told The New York Times that the Saudis cited economic damage caused by the war in Iran and the choking of traffic in the Strait of Hormuz as the reason they withdrew their offer.

The deal, which was announced as a nonbinding memorandum of understanding last September, would have seen the PIF inject as much as $200 million into the opera institution over the next eight years. The agreement also would have included a three-week February residency in Saudi Arabia, with the Metropolitan Opera bringing productions to the Royal Diriyah Opera House in the Diriyah gigaproject on the outskirts of Riyadh. The Metropolitan Opera, founded in 1883, typically stages 18 to 25 operas per season.

Why it matters: The New York-based cultural institution is under financial strain as it continues to recover from pandemic-era losses in both revenue and audience numbers. With the Saudis withdrawing from the deal, the Met faces a $30 million shortfall that it needs to close by the end of the fiscal year on July 31 or face greater deficits in the years ahead, Gelb told the Times.