With some Palestinian leaders still saying Arafat’s heart and brain are “fully functioning,” requests by international leaders have been pouring into Israel today to attend the PLO leader’s funeral, which may be as soon as tomorrow or Friday.
A Palestinian cleric, Taisser Bayod Tamimi, rushed to Paris to read passages from the Quran at Arafat’s bedside today, while aides issued more conflicting reports, although most ultimately sounded grim.
“Many organs have stopped working, except for Arafat’s heart – it is still beating,” top Arafat aide Nabin Abu Rdeneh said.
Palestinian envoy to France, Leila Shahid, said Arafat was “in a deep coma” today, and while he is still alive, she added there was a “complication in the state of all of his vital organs.”
One aide said Arafat is “in the final hours of his life.”
Meanwhile, Israel says they’ve been fielding calls all day from foreign leaders making plans to attend a farewell ceremony for Arafat to be held in Cairo’s International Airport tomorrow. Arafat’s funeral may be held in Ramallah on Friday.
French President Jacques Chirac, who has been briefed daily on Arafat’s health crisis, told Israel today he will attend the funeral. German’s Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer will attend the ceremony in Cairo, as will the deputy foreign ministers of Britain, Russia and Spain. United Nations’ Kofi Annan, however, is not expected to arrive.
The United States and some European states are not planning to send their heads of states to a funeral, but a U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said several options were being considered for the funeral, from sending Secretary of State Colin Powell to having former U.S. presidents attend, such as Bill Clinton or Jimmy Carter.
European diplomats, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said EU member states were coordinating funeral attendance together, and representation at the funeral would probably be at the ministerial level.
All Arab members of Israel’s Knesset have said they will attend the funeral and memorial, and the Knesset was making arrangements today with Israeli security services to ensure their safe passage to Ramallah. No other Israeli officials have announced they would attend the services.
