Saudi Arabia's elderly King Abdullah arrived in Morocco on Saturday to convalesce after spending almost two months in New York for medical treatment, Saudi state media said. The official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) said Abdullah, aged about 87, arrived in Casablanca where he often spends holidays, but gave no date for when he would return to the kingdom.
He left Riyadh on November 22 and underwent two operations in New York after a blood clot complicated a slipped disc. SPA did not publish a picture of King Abdullah, who arrived in New York in a wheelchair but was shown on state television walking after leaving hospital on December 22. Based on the most recent picture issued by SPA on January 11, he appeared to have lost weight.
The ruler of the world's biggest oil exporting country came to the throne in 2005 and is the sixth leader of the Opec state, whose political stability is of global concern. It controls more than a fifth of the world's crude oil reserves and is a vital US ally in the region as well as a major holder of dollar assets and home to the biggest Arab bourse.
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