EU and Gulf States Postpone Riyadh Summit as Houthi Threats Keep Airport Closed

The European Union and the Gulf Cooperation Council have postponed their second leaders summit, which was due to be held in Riyadh on October 24, the European Council said on Thursday, October 15. A new date will be announced in due course, the Council said in a short press release. It gave no reason for the delay.

The Gulf side was blunter. The Gulf Cooperation Council said it had postponed the summit because of continued Houthi threats against Saudi Arabia and a longer suspension of operations at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, Reuters reported. Two sources told Reuters the two sides had agreed to put the meeting off. Bulgaria's Prime Minister Rumen Radev said earlier on Thursday that he understood the meeting would be scrapped because of security concerns.

The airport the leaders were due to use

King Khalid International Airport is where visiting heads of state and government were expected to land. It has stayed shut since Houthi strikes on the airport last weekend, on Saturday, October 10, killed at least a dozen people and wounded hundreds. Yemen's Iran aligned Houthi movement claimed that attack. Reuters reported that the EU had partly meant the summit as a show of solidarity with Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states while the war with the Houthis widens, which makes the decision to call it off a measure of how hard travel into the Saudi capital has become.

The postponement is the second time this week that the fighting has emptied a Saudi host city's calendar. FIFA and the Saudi Esports Federation have already put off the FIFAe Finals in Jeddah, which were due to run from October 16 to 25, after the airport strike.

A young summit format

The Riyadh meeting was to be only the second summit between the two blocs. The first took place in Brussels in October 2024. The European Council said the partnership carries great strategic weight for both regions, and that the EU stays committed to deepening it and keeping the momentum built since that first meeting.

Trade, energy and regional security were expected to dominate the talks. Gulf states supply a large share of Europe's imported energy, and EU governments have courted them through the Iran war and the shipping crisis in the Strait of Hormuz. None of that agenda disappears with the postponement, but none of it moves forward until leaders can meet, and for now they cannot safely fly to the planned host city.

No official on either side gave a new date on Thursday. The Council said only that one would be announced in due course.