Arab royals celebrate Queen Elizabeth's 90th birthday

Arab royals - and regular folk - marked the 90th birthday of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday with tributes to the popular monarch, who has steered her nation through the decline of an empire and into the Internet age.

Kings, princes and sultans from the Arab world sent personal greetings to the queen on social media and by telegram, who last year overtook her great-great grandmother queen Victoria to become Britain's longest-serving monarch.

Emir of Dubai Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum said: "Our wishes from here in the UAE go not only to Her Majesty on this, her 90th birthday, but to the British people."

His son Crown Prince of Dubai Sheikh Hamdan joined his father by "extending his warmest wishes to an extraordinary queen who loves her country and her people",

Kuwaiti Sheikh Majed al-Sabah, also know as the "the Sheikh of Chic", sent the Queen his best wishes.

Sultan Qaboos bin Said of Oman delivered the queen a congratulatory happy birthday telegram.

Emirati Abdallah al-Saadi sent a personal message to the Queen: "Your Majesty, I have visited your beautiful and extremely hospitable country. Our nations have historic relations, I would love to wish you a happy and wonderful birthday."

Meanwhile, Saudi royalist Ahmad al-Maghlouth shared new pictures of the queen taken by US celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz.

Translation: "Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth surrounded by her grandsons and granddaughters. An amazing photo that shows her Majesty's care for her family."

The queen usually spends her birthday privately, with most of the pomp and ceremony reserved for an official birthday marked in June. But Thursday's milestone brought an outpouring of public goodwill across the world.

In London, thousands of fans greeted the queen on a tightly choreographed walkabout near her Windsor Castle home.

Her government and British citizens held gun salutes, fireworks and speeches in outside parliament. A televised retrospectives offered scenes from a royal life that has stretched from the Roaring Twenties until the age of social media.