Palestinian delegation to Paris ignoring Suha Arafat's insults

Four senior Palestinian officials left the city of Ramullah in the West Bank on their way to Paris to know about the health condition of the Palestinian President Yasser Arafat. This departure came hours after a spokesman for the delegation announced suddenly the postponement of the visit which it intended to pay to Paris on Monday following the accusations addressed to them by Arafat's wife.

The Palestinian prime minister Ahmad Qurei and the secretary of the PLO executive committee Mahmoud Abbas and the foreign minister Nabil Shaath and the chairman of the legislative council Rouhi Fattouh headed yesterday for Amman to take a special plane. They are expected to have reached Paris on Monday evening.

Statements made by Suha Arafat provoked critical reactions in the Palestinian political circles. She was accused by the secretary general of the presidency al-Tayeb Abdul Rahim of trying to "destroy the decision of the Palestinian leadership." In a press conference Abdul Rahim regretted Suha Arafat attempt to single out President Arafat's role, stressing that "she does not represent the leaderships of the Palestinian people, nor the Palestinian people." The Palestinian official say that leadership figures feel frustrated because of the shortage of information available about Arafat's health condition and therefore they decided to dispatch a high ranking medical delegation to Paris to know the reality.

The lack and contradictory information on the health condition of Arafat stems from the fact that the French law on the secrecy of the medical file of patients in critical conditions allow only very close relatives to have the information on the patients health condition and in making use of it.