Arafat health scare as condition worsens

Yasser Arafat was in a serious condition today after collapsing and briefly losing consciousness, as his persistent two-week illness took a sudden turn for the worse.

Aides urgently summoned doctors from Jordan, and the 75-year-old Palestinian leader’s wife was flying from Paris to be by his side.

Fearing for Arafat’s health, scores of top Palestinian officials descended late yesterday on the sandbagged, partially-demolished compound where he has been confined for over two years.

Communications Minister Azzam Ahmed said that Palestinian leaders had asked all the members of Arafat’s Fatah party living abroad to come to Ramallah.

“We are preparing ourselves for everything possible,” he told the Al-Jazeera satellite television station.

Arafat was eating soup during a meeting with Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia, former Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, and another official when he vomited, according to a bodyguard who was in the compound at the time.

Arafat was taken to the clinic inside the compound, where he collapsed and fell unconscious for about 10 minutes, the guard said. His doctors were urgently summoned, and a sense of fear fell over the Palestinian leadership.

A senior Palestinian official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Arafat was in serious condition.

An official in Arafat’s office said the Palestinian leader had created a special committee consisting of Qureia, Abbas, and Salim Zaanoun, head of the Palestinian National Council, to run the PLO and the Palestinian Authority while he is ill.

But when asked if Arafat had set up such a committee, Arafat spokesman Nabil Abu Rdeneh said: “Nothing like that.”

White House spokesman Scott McClellan, travelling in Michigan with US President George Bush, said US officials were monitoring the situation.

A senior official in Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s office said the Palestinians had asked Israel to allow foreign doctors to come treat Arafat.

“The prime minister immediately instructed the security officials and others involved to facilitate the transfer and any medical equipment and facilities Arafat might need,” the official said, adding that Israel would also allow Arafat to be transferred to any medical facility in the world.

Arafat has been ill for two weeks, but reports about his ailment have varied widely.

Palestinian officials said he had the flu. Israeli officials speculated he might have stomach cancer, but two of his doctors said Wednesday a blood test and a biopsy of tissue from his digestive tract showed no evidence of that.