The air of the Emirati capital will be "fragrant" with French perfumes for three days to hail the return of President Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahyan after surgery abroad, a newspaper said Wednesday.
A contract was being negotiated with a French company to supply a variety of perfumes to fill the air and to be sprayed through the many fountains of the tree-lined streets of Abu Dhabi, the Khaleej Times reported.
"The fragrance will be in the air for three days," it said.
The United Arab Emirates leader, a national hero, underwent a kidney transplant operation at Cleveland Clinic in Ohio on August 28 and has since been recuperating.
A return date has yet to be announced but Sheikh Zayed, 82, who left on July 13, is expected back in the coming weeks.
The Abu Dhabi municipal committee has drawn up a ceremonial programmed to mark the return home. City buildings, parks and streets will be illuminated and schoolchildren will form a welcome procession.
"We would like to make it a day to be remembered. We want everybody who loves the president to join us in the celebrations," a municipal official said.
Sheikh Zayed has been UAE president since the federation was formed in 1971 and guided the transformation from a largely Bedouin nomad society to one of the world's richest states thanks to its oil wealth -- ABU DHABI (AFP)
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