Palestinian leaders visit Arafat as his condition worsens

Comatose Yasser Arafat’s condition worsened today as Palestinian officials visited their critically ill leader, ignoring his wife’s angry objections.

Only Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia was allowed at the bedside, according to reports.

His visit came soon after General Christian Estripeau, spokesman for the Percy Military Hospital outside Paris, acknowledged for the first time that the 75-year-old is in a coma.

“President Yasser Arafat’s health worsened in the night,” Estripeau said. “His coma, which led to his admission to the intensive care unit, became deeper this morning.”

Estripeau said doctors were withholding a prognosis but that his deterioration marked “a significant stage”.

The announcement came amid a dramatic dispute between Arafat’s wife, Suha, and Palestinian officials whom she accused of trying to topple the veteran leader.

The Palestinians, including top Arafat lieutenants Qureia and former premier Mahmoud Abbas, flew to Paris on Monday night.

The delegation met Arafat’s doctors this afternoon for a detailed briefing on his condition, said the Palestinian leader’s financial adviser, Mohammed Rashid.

“They’re sitting face-to-face with the medical team,” he said.

The Palestinians also planned meetings with French officials, including President Jacques Chirac and Foreign Minister Michel Barnier.

Suha Arafat has been controlling who has access to her ailing husband. “He is all right, and he is going home,” she insisted.

Until the Palestinian delegation arrived, Suha and his nephew Nasser Al-Kidwa were the only non-medical visitors allowed at the bedside.

The Palestinians’ trip was abruptly cancelled but then rescheduled Monday after Arafat’s wife accused them of wanting to usurp Arafat’s four-decade-long role as Palestinian leader.

“I tell you they are trying to bury Abu Ammar alive,” she shouted, using Arafat’s nom de guerre, in a furious telephone call to Al-Jazeera television.

Her accusation outraged the Palestinian leadership and set the stage for a dramatic showdown that could inflame a tense power struggle between Arafat’s long-time lieutenants and his wife.

Some Palestinians have complained Suha Arafat has gained too much power, as she controls the flow of information about her husband’s condition and has taken charge of access to the ailing leader.

Palestinians have been making contingency plans in the event of Arafat’s death.

Qureia has assumed some emergency financial and administrative powers. Abbas has chaired a series of meetings of the PLO executive committee. But neither politician has much grass-roots support among Palestinians or important militant groups.

Suha Arafat, his wife of 13 years and mother of his daughter, seems to have aligned herself with hard-liners who apparently seek to take over the Palestinian leadership in a post-Arafat era, though some Palestinian officials said her motives are more financial.

According to a senior official in Arafat’s office, she has received monthly payments of almost €77,600 from Palestinian coffers and is widely believed to have control of vast funds collected by the PLO.

This year, French prosecutors launched a money-laundering probe into transfers of more than €8.6m into her accounts. She has refused to talk to reporters about Palestinian finances.

Suha Arafat, 41, lives in Paris and has not been to the West Bank or seen her husband since the latest round of Palestinian violence began in 2000.