Saudi Arabia postpones 'Davos in the Desert' until 2027 amid Houthi attacks

Saudi Arabia postponed its flagship investment conference, known as "Davos in the Desert," to 2027 on Monday amid attacks on the kingdom by Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels on targets including Riyadh's international airport.

What happened: The Future Investment Initiative, which typically attracts the CEOs of some of the biggest companies in business, finance and technology to Riyadh, will now be held in 2027, the organizers said in a statement, without giving new dates.

The event was originally scheduled for Oct. 26-29 this year in Riyadh.

“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 statement read.

Flight disruptions around the capital persisted Monday despite the reopening of Riyadh’s airport, which had been closed for a week following attacks that killed 17 people and wounded more than 300.

Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport reopened Sunday after a week-long closure following deadly attacks by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels. Some 108 flights were canceled Monday, equivalent to 18% of scheduled services, according to aviation tracking website Flightradar24.

The airport closed on Oct. 11 after several Houthi attacks over the course of a week killed more than 17 people and wounded hundreds.

Why it matters: The attacks have dealt a major blow to Saudi Arabia’s efforts to establish itself as a destination for investment, tourism and business, pillars of its push to diversify its economy away from oil.

The FII is a key platform for showcasing those ambitions to global investors and luring in billions of dollars of foreign capital to help advance the kingdom's Vision 2030 reforms to diversify the economy by the end of the decade. The FII summit is backed by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund.

Among the scheduled speakers for this year's FII were BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, founder of Bridgewater Associates Ray Dalio, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, Alphabet president and CIO Ruth Porat and HSBC group CEO Georges Elhedery.

Several other major international events in the kingdom have already been postponed following the attacks.

Saudi Arabia’s busiest airport, King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah, also experienced widespread flight disruptions during last week’s escalation. Most flights were operating Monday, though 50 were canceled and 186, or 24%, were delayed, according to Flightradar24.

The uncertainty extends beyond Saudi Arabia. On Monday, US embassies across the region — including in the Gulf, Israel, Iraq, Lebanon and Jordan — told American citizens to be on high alert amid threats of an escalation of attacks.

"Be aware of potential flight cancellations, airspace closures, and travel disruptions,” a statement from the embassies read. "The hostilities have the potential to escalate rapidly beyond that immediate area," the warning went on, urging Americans in the region to monitor flight information and prepare contingency plans.

Meanwhile, the conflict in Yemen is continuing to escalate between the Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces and the Houthis. At least 18 people were killed in an attack on Monday by the Houthis on a government security force training camp in Yemen’s Shabwa province, government and medical sources told Reuters.

Know more: Separately, a bomb threat late on Sunday forced an Austrian Airlines flight from Tel Aviv to Vienna to divert to Sofia. A search found nothing dangerous and the aircraft later continued to Vienna, the airline and Bulgaria’s BTA news agency said.

The crew reported receiving the threat as the aircraft approached the Romanian border, prompting Bulgaria’s air force to scramble MiG-29 fighter jets, according to BTA.

The incident came less than a month after a FlyDubai flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia following an attempted hijacking by the copilot.