Abbas reiterates importance of resuming investigation into Arafat's death

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas reiterated the importance of resuming the investigation of the new indicators that have emerged in the death of the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. In a joint press conference with his French counterpart Francois Hollande in Paris last night, President Abbas said the two sides discussed reported developments in Arafat's death, and underlined that the Palestinian Authority wants to see if there are any new elements regarding the circumstances of Arafat's death. Earlier in the week, the Palestinian Authority agreed to the exhumation of Yasser Arafat's body after new allegations that he was poisoned with the radioactive element polonium-210 in 2004. A Swiss institute that examined clothing provided by Arafat's widow Suha as part of an Al Jazeera Channel expose said it found high levels of polonium-210, though symptoms described in the president's medical reports were not consistent with the radioactive agent. The Palestinian administration said it would approve Suha Arafat's request to bring Arafat's remains up for autopsy from his limestone mausoleum in the West Bank city of Ramallah. The findings stirred up old Palestinian suspicions that Israel was behind the death of the 75-year-old it had shunned after peace talks collapsed into bloodshed in 2000. Israel has denied involvement in Arafat's death and the head of the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) at the time, Avi Dichter, on Wednesday said the onus was on the Palestinians. President Abbas had already ordered the committee investigating the causes for the illness and death of Yasser Arafat to follow up on all information and reports regarding his death and to seek assistance from Arab and international experts to find the truth behind Arafat’s illness and death. On Friday, Tunisia called for an urgent meeting of the Arab League to investigate the circumstances surrounding the death of the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. "We called for an urgent meeting of all Arab ministers of foreign affairs to immediately establish an international investigative committee to probe into recent revelations concerning his [Arafat's] death – like the one that investigated the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Al Hariri. He [Arafat] is an Arabic leader who always had a special bond with Tunisia, and we owe him this," Tunisian Foreign Minister Rafik Abdessalem said.