Arafat leaving compound for Paris hospital

RAMALLAH, West Bank – Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is expected to fly to Paris Friday for treatment of an unspecified illness that has left him weak and unable to eat or walk, Palestinian officials announced Thursday.

The decision for Arafat to seek treatment outside the battered West Bank compound he has called home for the last three years was made after Israeli officials agreed that the 75-year-old leader could return when he recovers.

“We have an assurance from the Israelis that they will let him back in,” said Paul Patin, a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv. Israeli officials confirmed they would not try to bar Arafat from re-entering the West Bank.

The decision to send Arafat to France came after a tense two days of concern about his health amid rumors that he had lapsed into unconsciousness.

Arafat’s wife, Suha, flew to his side from her home in Tunis. Teams of Arab doctors, Palestinian officials and Muslim clerics came and went from Arafat’s compound throughout the day before Arafat’s travel plans were announced. There was little specificity about his illness.

At a news conference, Arafat’s personal physician, Dr. Ashraf Kurdi, of Jordan, said Arafat is suffering from a deficiency of platelets, the particles in blood that aid in clotting, and that he was at risk of internal bleeding.

But what precisely is causing the deficiency is unknown, Kurdi said.

“If we know exactly what is the cause of the platelet deficiency,” said Kurdi, “treatment can be very easy.”

Factors that cause platelet deficiency include ulcers, colitis, liver disease, leukemia and lymphoma. Kurdi said the doctors do not believe Arafat has leukemia, and Palestinian medical sources said recent blood tests and an endoscopy performed this week found no sign of cancer.

In Washington, a State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Arafat aides have told U.S. diplomats that the Palestinian leader is suffering from pancreatitis, gallstones and dehydration. The aides said Arafat has been unable to eat or walk and has “zoned out” at times, but never lost consciousness, the official said.

The official said U.S. diplomats were in touch with both Palestinians and Israelis to monitor Arafat’s health and ensure there are no diplomatic disagreements over his treatment, but that the United States had not had to intervene in discussions about his departure for Paris or his eventual return to Ramallah.

In Paris, the French Foreign Ministry said Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia had requested that Arafat be admitted for medical treatment and that permission had been granted “in the context of the friendly relations that exist between France and the Palestinian authorities.”

The ministry said Arafat would travel to France aboard a plane provided by the French government. He is expected to be taken by Jordanian army helicopter from Ramallah to Amman sometime after 6:30 a.m. today. Once in Paris, Arafat will be admitted to the Hospital D’Instruction Des Armees du Val de Grace, in the 5th arrondissement, the same hospital that treats French presidents, according to the satellite news channel Euronews

Arafat’s illness and the possibility of his death were greeted with concern and alarm, both among his followers in Ramallah and throughout the world. Arafat has been the face of the Palestinian movement for 40 years, and while Israelis loathe him as a terrorist and Bush administration officials refuse to speak with him, few people know what to expect in the troubled Middle East once Arafat passes from the scene.

There are provisions for the installation of government caretakers under Palestinian law. But because of Arafat’s style of one-man rule, he has not groomed an heir apparent.