Saudi monarch heads home after treatment

King Abdullah returns home to Middle East rocked by anti-regime uprisings, although his own country has been spared.

Middle East Online

Earthquake of anti-regime protests in the region during his absence CASABLANCA - Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah flew out of Morocco on Wednesday and headed home to Riyadh after recovering from back surgery, an official source said. The 86-year-old, who was seen off at Casablanca airport by the speaker of the Moroccan parliament, was due to receive a royal welcome on his return to Riyadh where the streets have already been decorated with national flags. The monarch's health has been the subject of intense speculation and the Saudi embassy in Morocco had to issue a denial earlier this month that the king had died following a widely circulated report on the Internet. King Abdullah arrived in Morocco on January 22 after surgery on his back in the United States and will return home to a Middle East rocked by anti-regime uprisings, although his own country has been spared. In his absence, mass street protests led to the ouster of Egypt's president Hosni Mubarak, Saudi Arabia's close ally whom the king has backed in a phone call from Morocco. Before Mubarak's ouster on February 11, Tunisia's strongman Zine El Abidine Ben Ali fled to Saudi Arabia's Red Sea city of Jeddah after protests toppled his regime in mid-January.