An Arab official denies Italian report on Arafat's deteriorated mental capability
Palestine, Politics, 6/29/2002

An Arab official has stressed that the health conditions of the Palestinian Chairman Yasser Arafat is "excellent" and that he does not suffer any deterioration in his thinking ability, in contrary to what stated by the Italian weekly "Panorama" on Friday.

The Arab officials who asked to be anonymous said "I found him ( Arafat ) in an excellent condition, enjoying all his mental capabilities."

Arafat is 72 year old.

Replying to an inquiry by AFP the Jordanian nerve doctor Ashraf al-Kurdi who supervises Arafat medical treatment said he had phoned Arafat 48 hours ago and noted no negative development on his health condition.

Al-Kurdi who follows up Arafat's health conditions and visits him regularly in Ramullah for that purpose said "there is no deterioration in his stable health condition and he seemed in a good state " during the telephone call.

However, the Italian "Panorama " said quoting a report prepared by foreign experts in intelligence affairs said the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat suffers "gradual recession in his mental capacity," noting that Arafat suffers loss of memory and the ability to concentrate and lack of logical linking of matters.

"Panorama" added that the American administration and President George Bush used this report to call for alienating Arafat and to find a new leader for the Palestinians during Bush's recent speech on the situation on the Middle East. The paper added that "health conditions of Yasser Arafat played an important role in the sharp political negotiations which ended in Bush's speech on the need of finding out a new leader for the Palestinians." The weekly which is owned by the Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said that Arafat is vulnerable to "very violent waves of anger to the extent that his aides avoid meeting with journalists to avoid embarrassing situations."

Previous Stories:
  EU adds two other Palestinian movements to terrorists list   (6/19/2002)
  Sherry Blair: suicide operations show the Palestinians lost hope   (6/19/2002)
  Hawatmah and targeting the civilians   (6/19/2002)
  Arafat is in good health conditions after medical tests in Amman   (8/17/2001)
  On Arafat's health condition   (4/19/1999)

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