Aides trying to seize power from Arafat, says wife

YASSER ARAFAT’S wife yesterday accused his top lieutenants of seeking to grab control from her ailing husband, nearly torpedoing a visit by top Palestinian officials in the first sign of an open power struggle.

Despite the row, Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia and former Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas left the West Bank for Jordan, to get a flight to Paris to visit Mr Arafat and consult with his doctors.

In a screaming telephone call from Mr Arafat’s hospital bedside, Suha Arafat told Al-Jazeera television that Mr Arafat’s aides were conspiring to usurp her husband as Palestinian leader.