JORDAN/WEST BANK: DELEGATION OF SENIOR PALESTINIAN LEADERS ARRIVES BACK IN JORDAN AFTER VISITING AILING PRESIDENT YASSER ARAFAT IN PARIS

Record ID: 402578

  • Title: JORDAN/WEST BANK: DELEGATION OF SENIOR PALESTINIAN LEADERS ARRIVES BACK IN JORDAN AFTER VISITING AILING PRESIDENT YASSER ARAFAT IN PARIS
  • Date: 10th November 2004
  • Summary: (W1) AMMAN, JORDAN (NOVEMBER 10, 2004) (REUTERS) (NIGHT SHOTS) 1. VARIOUS OF DELEGATION IN CARS, HEADING FOR JORDANIAN-WEST BANK BORDER 0.21 (W1) ALLENY BRIDGE, JORDANIAN-WEST BANK BORDER (NOVEMBER 10, 2004) (REUTERS) 2. VARIOUS CONVOY OF PALESTINIAN DELEGATION ARRIVING BACK TO WEST BANK AFTER VISITING WITH AILING PALESTINIAN LEADER IN P
  • Embargoed: 25th November 2004 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: AMMAN, JORDAN/ALLENY BRIDGE, JORDANIAN-WEST BANK BORDER/ WEST BANK CHECKPOINT
  • City:
  • Country: Palestinian Territories
  • Reuters ID: LVA4DMZ7N47PBGJJ89H8XFS56VHH
  • Story Text: Palestinian delegation from Paris arrives back in
    West Bank.


    A delegation of three senior leaders returned to the
    West Bank from Paris early on Wednesday (November 10) ahead
    of an expected announcement on Palestinian President Yasser
    Arafat's medical condition and plans for the future .

    Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie, Foreign Minister Nabil
    Shaath, and Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO)
    Secretary General Mahmoud Abbas passed through the Allenby
    bridge crossing in Jordan before reaching the West Bank.

    Arafat suffered a brain haemorrhage on Tuesday
    (November 9) and aides said he had died at a French
    hospital.

    Confusion over the national icon's fate grew as
    officials insisted in public that he still clung to life.

    Shaath, in a strenuous denial, said the Palestinian
    president, 75, was "very much alive", but at least five
    senior sources said he had succumbed to the mystery illness
    that led to his being flown to Paris on Oct. 29.

    Officials said it was likely that a funeral would be
    held in Cairo followed by a burial in Ramallah at the
    shell-battered "Muqata" compound where Arafat had been
    effectively confined by Israeli troops for 2-1/2 years.

    After ruling out the burial in the holy city of
    Jerusalem that Arafat wanted, Israeli officials had said
    they wanted him interred in the Gaza Strip. But political
    sources said they might lift objections to Ramallah.

    Despite his reputation as a consummate survivor,
    Arafat's decline came swiftly and with little warning.

    Initial claims that he was suffering from a stomach
    ailment soon gave way to widespread reports that he had
    slipped into a coma and that his organs were failing.

    French doctors kept a tight lid on details of Arafat's
    condition at the behest of his wife, Suha, who engaged in a
    war of words with senior Palestinians officials over her
    virtual monopoly on information from his hospital bedside.

    Qurie saw Arafat on Tuesday. The other members of the
    delegation, Nabil Shaath and Abbas, were unable to.

    Most of Arafat's powers have been take over by Qurie
    and Abbas, both leading moderates. Arafat's death would
    call for parliament speaker Rawhi Fattouh to assume the
    presidency in a caretaker capacity for 60 days until
    elections could be held.


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