This week Obama will be meeting with Arab leaders from the Gulf Cooperation. The conference convenes in Washington starting on Wednesday and lasting until Thursday when the Camp David summit takes place. The numerous conferences are used to by the United States to ensure its positions on multiple issues in the Middle East, one of which being the current instability of Arab states.

One major leader that will not be attending the meeting is Saudi Arabia’s king S​alman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud. He canceled only four days before the conference.

There is much speculation as to why King Salman canceled. Some reporters claim he wants to “snub” Obama. But The Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia said the king canceled “due to the timing of the summit, the scheduled humanitarian ceasefire in Yemen and the opening of the King Salman Center for Humanitarian Aid.” Foreign Minister Adel Al­Jubeir also spoke out against these claims, “I want to lay to rest this notion of this being a snub or a problem with the relationship.”

In fact, this past Monday Obama received a phone call from King Salman stating his apologies for not being able to travel to the U.S. for the meeting. A spokeswoman for the State Department supported King Salman’s decision to cancel, “Nothing could be further from the truth that there was some, some snub to use the cable news talking point. King Salman made this decision given what’s going on in Yemen.”

King Salman is sending replacements to the conference that seem to be extremely qualified and ready to discuss contemporary issues.