Wife had not seen Arafat for years until he fell ill

YASSER ARAFAT’S wife Suha, long dismissed by Palestinians as a spoiled socialite, had not seen her husband for years until he fell sick last month.

But she has suddenly emerged as a major player in the succession struggle for Palestinian power.

In a one-minute telephone call to the Arab satellite network Al-Jazeera, she set off a political storm yesterday, accusing her husband's top aides of conspiring to replace the 75-year-old leader in a behind-the-scenes power grab. Mrs Arafat has lived since 2000 in Paris far from her husband, confined in his Ramallah headquarters in the West Bank. But his health has vaulted her to the centre of events.

A Nablus-born Christian, Suha served as Mr Arafat's secretary when he was in exile in Tunisia. In 1991, Mrs Arafat converted to Islam and married the Palestinian leader, then 62. She was 28 and unpopular from the start.