Talabani 'recuperating well' in Jordanian hospital

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani is recovering well from his weekend collapse from exhaustion and a pulmonary inflammation, the Iraqi ambassador said in Jordan today.

“He’s in good shape, fully aware and doing well,” said Ambassador Saad al-Hayyani. “There are no tests planned today.”

The ambassador declined to say whether Mr Talabani would be discharged from his Amman hospital, the King Hussein Medical City, soon so he can return to Iraq.

Mr Talabani, 73, fell ill on Sunday in Sulaimaniyah, his hometown in north-eastern Iraq, and was unconscious when taken to hospital. But he recovered sufficiently to be flown to neighbouring Jordan that night for treatment.

Mr Al-Hayyani said Mr Talabani had been suffering from exhaustion and a mild lung inflammation.

Yedkar Hikmat, Mr Talabani’s personal physician, has dismissed rumours the president had a heart problem.

“He did not suffer any heart attack. His heart is 100 per cent good,” Mr Hikmat said yesterday.

Mr Talabani last appeared in public in Sulaimaniyah on Saturday when he met US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and Massoud Barzani, the leader of the Kurdish autonomous region of Iraq.

A member of Mr Talabani’s party, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, has said the president has a long history of fainting when he is exhausted – a condition dating back to his years as a Kurdish guerrilla leader fighting Saddam Hussein’s regime.