deeper coma in a French hospital with an official warning that whether he will live or die is now "the will of God."
Speaking to reporters after visiting the military hospital near Paris, Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath ruled out euthanasia. "Even if that is discussed, we don’t want that, as Muslims," he said. "We are people who believe in God, it is in the hands of God now," Shaath stressed.
He said the condition of the 75-year-old leader, has steadily worsened since he was flown to the military hospital on October 29. Shaath denied reports that Arafat had cancer and said "poisoning" had also been ruled out by doctors.
The minister said that medics had told him that his condition was due to "his age, and results of 3.5 years" living in isolation "besieged by the Israeli army" in an office in Ramallah "without proper sanitation."
BURRIAL
However the politician refused to speculate on where he will be buried, saying it was "indecent to talk about a burial" when the person "is still very much alive."
Shaath said Arafat’s "brain, his heart and his lungs are still functioning and he is alive."
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has ruled out a burial in Jerusalem, which Jews and Palestinians both claim as their capital. However the Palestinian deputy Parliament speaker, Hassan Khreishe, told The Associated Press (AP) news agency that leaders decided Arafat should be buried at his West Bank headquarters, known as the Muqata.
"COOPED UP"
Palestinian officials say Arafat was "cooped up" in his battered offices by Israel’s army for nearly three years, and the site has become a symbol to Palestinians of their resistance to Israeli occupation.
Minister Shaath spoke after he and other Palestinian officials met with Arafat’s doctors, his wife and French President Jacques Chirac. He tried to calm down tension with Arafat’s wife, Suha, who initially used France’s strict privacy laws that give authority to the family, to deny the leader’s lieutenant’s access to him.
In an interview with the Arabic network Al-Jazeera, she had accused Arafat’s cabinet of "burying him alive," and even suggested he will "recover" and return to his homeland.
"We understand that she is very much his wife, but President Arafat is also the leader of the Palestinian people," he said. A top Islamic cleric, Taissir Dayut Tamimi, was rushing to Arafat’s bedside, AP reported.
"CLOSE FRIEND"
Shaath called Tamimi, who was expected in Paris on Wednesday, "a very close friend" of Arafat and said that "we think having a religious person beside him in these difficult moments is relevant."
He dismissed speculation that Tamimi, head of the Islamic court in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, could advise on removing Arafat from life support. "No mufti in the world has the right to do that," Shaath said.
In Israel, the army has been on high alert in anticipation of a possible escalation of violence and an internal power struggle after Arafat’s death.
However Shaath said that "the Palestinian cabinet is functioning" and that when the Palestinian leader dies, elections will be called for "within 60 days by the parliamentary speaker" who will act as interim president.
