Arafat ‘stable’ after collapse
Religious leader Yasser Arafat is in a stable condition after collapsing this evening.
Arafat spokesman Nabil Abu Rdeneh has said, “The situation is stable now, he is in stable condition, but he needs more rest and more medical care.”
He had been eating soup during a meeting between 8pm and 9pm tonight when he vomited, according to a bodyguard who was in the compound at the time.
Arafat was brought to the clinic inside the compound, where he collapsed and was unconscious for about 10 minutes and remained in a “very difficult situation,” Palestinian officials have said.
A team of Jordanian doctors was urgently summoned to treat the ailing Palestinian leader.
Israeli security officials said his wife, Suha, who lives in France, was expected to arrive tomorrow.
Scores of top Palestinian officials also descended on Arafat’s Ramallah compound tonight.
A decision to hospitalise Arafat, who has been confined to his compound for two and a half years, will be made purely on medical grounds, without taking politics into consideration, the official said.
Arafat had been ill over the past two weeks, suffering from what Palestinian officials said was a lengthy bout of the flu. Israeli officials speculated he might have stomach cancer, but two of the leader’s doctors said today that a blood test, combined with a biopsy, had shown otherwise.
Israeli officials had also speculated Arafat had suffered a stroke.
