|
Arafat has liver failure officials say Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://reuters.myway.com/article/20041107/2004-11-07T133601Z_01_N07405410_RTRIDST_0_NEWS-MIDEAST-ARAFAT-DC.htmlhttp://reuters.myway.com/article/20041107/2004-11-07T133601Z_01_N07405410_RTRIDST_0_NEWS-MIDEAST-ARAFAT-DC.html
Arafat Has Liver Failure, Officials Say
Nov 7, 8:36 AM (ET)
By Wafa Amr
PARIS (Reuters) - Yasser Arafat lay critically ill with liver failure on Sunday and his condition was getting no better, a Palestinian official said, as Palestinian leaders adopted in his absence a plan to restore order in their areas.
Israel completed preparations to bury the Palestinian president, should he die, in the Gaza Strip -- a move that would contradict Arafat's stated desire to be buried in Jerusalem.
Amid growing concern over who will succeed the 75-year-old leader, who is being treated at a French military hospital, some aides said his condition was so bad he might be moved to Egypt, from where he could be flown home more quickly if he died.
"He has liver failure. His condition is not improving," said a Palestinian official in the West Bank who declined to be named. "One option being considered is moving him to Cairo."
The official said any decision to move Arafat could be taken only by the Palestinian leadership. He added that a low count of platelets, which help the blood clot, meant blood transfusions were proving difficult.
Doctors have ruled out leukemia but remain puzzled why Arafat's health deteriorated sharply last week at the Paris hospital, where he has been having tests since he was flown from the West Bank on Oct. 29.
In Ramallah, site of Arafat's headquarters, his fellow leaders decided to carry out a plan to restore law and order in the West Bank and Gaza, a government minister said. It was the first major decision they have announced since Arafat left.
Officials said the plan was drafted in March and is more concerned with ending local lawlessness than reining in militants waging a 4-year-old uprising -- a long-standing Israeli and international demand.
Cabinet minister Saeb Erekat told Reuters the National Security Council decided to "implement a plan to restore the rule of law in the Palestinian territories."
The security plan calls for more security forces to be deployed. Militants will be banned from carrying arms except when confronting Israel and stopped from intervening in local disturbances.
ISRAEL SEES SIGNS OF ACTION
Arafat and other officials often promised action on the security front, with little result. Arafat said the Palestinians were hamstrung by Israel's destruction of their forces during the uprising.
Briefing Israel's cabinet on Sunday, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said there were signs that Palestinian leaders were trying to curtail violence.
"There are indications that they are trying to close ranks and stop the Hamas terrorism, but there is no way of knowing if this will succeed," he said.
Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie came under pressure from the armed factions on Saturday to give them decision-making powers in a temporary unified leadership they want if Arafat dies. He did not say he had agreed.
Arafat wants to be buried in Jerusalem's Old City, which is holy both to Muslims and Jews, but Israeli officials refuse to let him lie in land which Israel calls part of its indivisible capital and which it annexed after the 1967 war.
Israel wants him buried in the Gaza Strip.
"The defense establishment has completed preparations for an Arafat funeral in Gaza," political sources quoted Mofaz as telling Sunday's cabinet meeting.
"The moment we receive a Palestinian Authority request on the matter, we will implement final preparations. We still await a formal announcement of Arafat's death."
Israel allowed the Palestinian leader to be flown from the West Bank to France and returning him to Gaza would require similar permission.
|
|
