NICE/DUBAI: Saudi Arabian King Salman left the south of France for Morocco on Sunday, cutting short a planned three-week stay after a petition from some 150,000 residents over the closure of a public beach outside his villa, according to foreign media sources.
A Saudi source said King Salman had arrived in Morocco, saying this was part of his holiday program and had nothing to do with the media coverage that his visit had attracted.
Philippe Castanet, a local French government official, added that about half of the king’s 1,000-person entourage had left along with him. He did not specify a reason for the departures nor if the monarch planned to return to France.
The planned three-week visit by the new king and his inner circle at the family’s seafront villa in Vallauris, where US actress Rita Hayworth celebrated her wedding to Prince Aly Khan of Pakistan in 1949, was expected to be a boon for the local economy, sources added.
But the closure of the public beach for privacy and security reasons stirred up a local storm. The king’s installation of an elevator from the beach to the villa, approved for temporary use by local government, also provoked anger among some residents who objected to allowing him this privilege.
These are personnel matters of Saudi monarch which should not be discussed
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