The White House had said Obama would have a meeting with Salman ahead of the summit. A Saudi snub? Saudi King Salman will skip Camp David summit, sending his crown prince instead.

Call it the “Saudi snub.” Or, if you are the White House, don’t.

After Saudi Arabia announced Sunday that its king had canceled plans to attend President Barack Obama’s summit of Gulf Arab states at Camp David this week, the White House raced to snuff out talk of a royal snub.


On Monday, Obama administration officials strongly disputed reports of tension with the monarch, arguing that Saudi King Salman is merely preoccupied with his country’s military campaign in Yemen. The White House also announced that Salman had called Obama on Monday to “express his regret” at missing the summit and that the pair reviewed the agenda for the upcoming gathering while agreeing on the “necessity of working closely.”

“There’s been no concern raised by our Saudi partners, either before the change in travel plans or after, related to the agenda at Camp David,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said. “All the feedback that we’ve received so far from the Saudis has been positive.”

Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister echoed the point. “This idea that this is a snub because the king [will] not attend is off-base,” Adel al-Jubeir told a group of reporters in Washington. “This is not related in any way, shape or form to any disagreement between the two countries.”

Jubeir insisted that Friday’s announcement of a five-day cease-fire in Yemen changed the king’s plans, forcing him to remain home to oversee its implementation. For several weeks, a Saudi-led Sunni Arab coalition has targeted Yemeni rebels — allegedly backed by Iran — with hundreds of airstrikes.

Despite the assurances, Republican hawks were skeptical. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) cast the Saudi king’s absence as a “lack of confidence” in Obama’s regional agenda.

The summit includes all six members of the Gulf Cooperation Council, but the Saudis are the heavyweights in that group. Obama called the meeting after striking his framework nuclear agreement with Iran last month to comfort the oil-rich, longtime U.S. ally over concerns about Iran’s regional influence.

News of the king’s reversal came with surprising abruptness. Secretary of State John Kerry met with Salman in the Saudi capital on Thursday. On Friday, the White House announced that Obama would hold a special session with Salman in Washington before the summit.

It was unclear who told the White House that the king would come to Washington. A senior administration official said the Saudis made no promise to Kerry about the king’s attendance, but the official insisted that “there was no communications failure — the Saudis changed their mind about who would attend, pure and simple.”

Asked on Monday whether health considerations might have affected the 79-year-old king’s plans, Jubeir said no: “The king’s health is excellent, thank God.”

He added that Saudi Arabia has sent its crown prince to other important foreign gatherings, including G-8 and G-20 summits. The king is sending Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef and Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to Washington in his stead, something Jubeir called unprecedented. “This is a really high-level delegation,” he added.

Arab officials have said they hope for U.S. security guarantees, and even a written pact, as assurances of their security against Iran. But it’s unclear how much the U.S. is willing to offer, especially considering the volatility of the Middle East. White House officials said in a conference call Monday that there will likely be some sort of post-summit statement issued, as well as announcements about joint military exercises and other defense-related cooperation.

Jubeir cautioned against seeing the meeting as a negotiation in which each side was making requests of the other. “This is about underscoring the strategic relationship,” he said.

Analysts suggested communication failures between Washington and Riyadh may be partly to blame. Still, a number of them agreed that Salman’s decision not to come isn’t necessarily a surprise. The king, who took power in January, is rumored to have health problems that could make travel difficult. And bin Nayef and bin Salman run the Saudi interior and defense ministries, respectively, and the talks may focus on technical issues they are far more familiar with.

“I don’t see it as much of a snub as perhaps some of you,” Frederic Wehrey, an expert on Gulf Arab states with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said during a session with reporters Monday. “They probably thought it was a little bit of, you know, sending a little bit of a signal, but I don’t think it’s a catastrophic dismissal of Obama.”

Salman is not the only head of state sending a substitute. The rulers from Oman and the United Arab Emirates are not coming themselvesdue to health problems. There also were reports that the ruler of Bahrain would not attend the gathering, which kicks off with a dinner at the White House on Wednesday ahead of meetings at Camp David on Thursday. The rulers of Qatar and Kuwait are expected to attend.

“It’s an indicator of the lack of confidence that the Saudis and others have,” McCain told MSNBC. “They do not see a way to … be satisfied with the situation when it’s clear that the Iranian nuclear deal is the No. 1 priority and this administration feels that they can somehow make agreements with Iran throughout the region when these countries view Iran as a direct threat.”

Another senior Obama administration official said the White House first learned Friday night that the king might stay away and that the Saudis confirmed it Saturday.

“We coordinated closely with our Saudi partners on the alternate arrangement and timing of the announcement, and look forward to welcoming Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef and Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman,” the official said, insisting that the king’s decision is “not in response to any substantive issue.”

It was not immediately clear whether Obama would still hold a pre-summit meeting with the king’s heirs.

Sarah Wheaton and Josh Gerstein contributed to this report.