Mystery note on Arafat's health
2004-11-07 18:26
Paris - Yasser Arafat's wife on Sunday despatched a key Palestinian official to the West Bank with a mysterious message for the leadership concerning the health of her husband and its political consequences.
Suha Arafat, who has been at her ailing husband's bedside since he was flown to Paris on October 29, sent the message in the hands of former Palestinian security minister Mohammed Dahlan.
Members of the Palestinian delegation in France said the message deals with "the evolution of (Arafat's) health" as well as "the consequences of his absence on the political scene" in the occupied territories.
Dahlan told AFP before leaving Paris he was due to arrive on Sunday in Jordan before delivering the message from Suha to the Palestinian leadership in Ramallah that evening or the following day.
Dahlan, considered as the strongman of the Gaza Strip, would not divulge the contents of the message.
But it could represent an intervention by Suha over the succession to her husband, following meetings chaired by Palestinian prime minister Ahmed Qorei and former premier Mahmud Abbas to plan for a power transfer.
A spokesperson for the medical service of the French army said on Sunday that Arafat's condition remained unchanged in the military hospital on the southwestern outskirts of Paris where he has been in a coma since Wednesday.