Riyadh Shuts Down In-Person Schools for a Week, Saudi Officials Give No Explanation

Every school in Riyadh went remote starting Sunday, September 27. No warning, no reason given, just an email.

Parents across the Saudi capital got last-minute messages from schools telling them classes would move entirely online through the Madrasati platform for a full week, according to messages seen by AFP. The directive covers every student in the city, plus teaching, educational and administrative staff, who were also told to work from home.

"We have just been informed by Saudi authorities that schools must remain closed all week," two separate school messages read, per AFP.

The Saudi Ministry of Education had not issued any public statement on the closures as of publication, according to Gulf News. Nobody in an official capacity has said why an entire city's school system just went dark for a week.

Parents Are Furious About the Silence

"When a decision affects an entire school community for a full week, families deserve clear communication and transparency about the reasons behind it," one Riyadh parent, who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity, said.

A Lebanese expatriate living in the city put it more bluntly: "It's a last-minute decision. We have no clue what's happening," the parent told AFP, according to Free Malaysia Today.

The Backdrop: Escalating Houthi Strikes

No source has confirmed the school closures are directly tied to the security situation, but the timing coincides with a sharp escalation in Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia.

On Saturday, September 26, the Saudi-led coalition fighting Yemen's Houthi movement said its air defenses intercepted and destroyed two drones headed toward the Riyadh area, according to Mathrubhumi English. The same coalition said it also shot down a ballistic missile aimed at Khamis Mushait, a city in southwestern Saudi Arabia that hosts a Saudi air base.

Those strikes are part of a pattern. The United Nations Security Council has condemned the escalating Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia, which the council says have wounded civilians, including women and children, according to Malay Mail. The current wave of hostilities dates back to July, when a years-long truce between Saudi Arabia and the Iran-backed Houthis collapsed.

The regional temperature is rising on multiple fronts. The U.S. Virtual Embassy in Iran issued an alert Sunday urging all American citizens to leave Iran immediately, warning of possible flight cancellations and airspace closures, Fox News reported. The embassy called the security environment "complex" and warned of "unforeseen escalation."

Oil markets are already pricing in the risk. Brent crude climbed 81 cents, or 0.8%, to $104.68 a barrel in early Asian trading after the weekend strikes on Riyadh, according to Fox News.

Diplomacy Is Also Happening, Quietly

While drones and missiles fly, so do diplomatic cables. Qatar's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Majed Al-Ansari told Bloomberg's "This Weekend" that Qatari mediators have spent "the past couple of weeks" shuttling proposals between Washington and Tehran to try to restart nuclear and regional talks.

"A lot of ideas have been thrown back and forth," Ansari said, adding that mediators are "trying to bridge the gap and find the right moment to move forward."

Separately, a Houthi political bureau member, Mohamed al-Bukhaiti, told The Associated Press the group has been in contact with Washington and has no intention of targeting U.S. vessels in the Red Sea or Bab el-Mandeb Strait, saying the group's fight is with "the Saudi enemy" alone. President Trump said last weekend that Houthi representatives called his team directly and "don't want to fight with us."

None of that explains why Riyadh's classrooms went empty. What's verifiable is this: attacks on Saudi Arabia are increasing, the U.S. is telling Americans to flee neighboring Iran, oil markets are jumpy, and a Gulf capital just paused in-person schooling for a week without telling anyone why. The Saudi Ministry of Education has yet to say a word publicly. Until it does, parents in Riyadh are left to their own conclusions.