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FRENCH EXPERTS HAVE ruled out a theory that Yasser Arafat was killed by poisoning and believe he may have died of natural causes, a source close to the probe into the Palestinian leader’s death said Tuesday.
The French experts’ findings differ significantly from those of Swiss scientists, who said last month that their research offered some support for the suggestion Arafat was killed by polonium poisoning.
“The report rules out the poisoning theory and goes in the sense of a natural death,” the source said.
The circumstances of Arafat’s death aged 75 at a military hospital near Paris in November 2004 after a sudden deterioration in his health have long been mired in rumour and speculation.
French doctors were unable to say what killed him and an autopsy was never performed, at the request of his widow.
Many Palestinians believed he was poisoned by Israel – a claim repeatedly denied by the Jewish state.
Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor told AFP the results of the French probe were “no surprise”.
Some reservations
Tawfiq Tirawi, the head of a Palestinian team that investigated Arafat’s death, expressed reservations over the French findings but said members of the team needed to study the report before taking a position.
France opened a formal murder inquiry in August 2012, a month after an Al-Jazeera documentary linked Arafat’s death to polonium poisoning.
Some 60 samples were taken from Arafat’s remains in November 2012 and divided between Swiss and Russian investigators and a French team carrying out a probe at his widow’s request.
The prosecutors’ office in the Paris suburb of Nanterre, which is conducting the French probe refused to comment on the investigation’s findings Tuesday.
“I am so shattered by these contradictions. What are we supposed to think?” said Souha Arafat.
The Swiss team said the test results neither confirmed nor denied polonium was the actual source of his death, although they provided “moderate” backing for the idea he was poisoned by the rare and highly radioactive element.
They said the quantity of the deadly substance found on his remains pointed to the involvement of a third party.
Russia’s Federal Medical-Biological Agency (FMBA) has yet to release its findings.
A report by news agency Interfax in October quoted its chief Vladimir Uiba as saying Arafat “could not have been poisoned by polonium” but the medical agency later denied he had made any statement.
Palestinian Justice Minister Ali Mhanna last month urged France to release the results of its probe, saying the Palestinians were sure Arafat had been poisoned and that Israel was the “only suspect” in his death.
‘Easier with a bullet’
Israeli President Shimon Peres, who shared the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize with Arafat and Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, said last month that the reports of polonium poisoning were unbelievable.
“If someone had wanted to get rid of Arafat, it would have been easier to do it with a bullet,” he said.
The Swiss team’s findings sparked fresh accusations from the Palestinians and increased tensions with Israel at a delicate time.
US-brokered peace talks resumed at the end of July after a three-year gap, but have already hit a deadlock over Israeli settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank on land the Palestinians want for their future state.
Arafat shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Israeli leaders after signing the landmark Oslo accords in 1993, when hopes ran high for a negotiated settlement to the conflict.
But the negotiations broke down seven years later amid bitter recriminations on both sides, and a bloody Palestinian intifada, or uprising, erupted that would eventually claim the lives of some 3,000 Palestinians and 1,000 Israelis from 2000-2005.
Israel and the United States blamed Arafat for a wave of suicide bombings and other attacks on Israelis during the uprising, while Arafat insisted he was powerless to prevent Palestinians from retaliating for deadly Israeli military operations in the occupied territories.
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Headline should read. . . “French experts hired to rule out Arafat poison theory do their jobs and rule out poison theory”.
I wonder which payed Israeli blogger turns up on The Journal first tonight.
Exactly.
I’m pro Israel, they certainly don’t pay me and I would be most indignant if they offered. Unlike those who push Pallywood propaganda – I wonder how much the terrorists in Hamas pay them – I deal in facts. The independent French team said no, the Russians found nothing, the Swiss found a possibility. There was no reason for Israel to kill Arafat, his corruption was keeping the Palestinians split.
Clown.
That Comment was meant for Tomas, anyone not sympathetic to his way of thinking is a paid agent of Israel, idiot!
Im waiting for someone to blame Alan Shatter,he’s the one that usually gets it in the neck from every anti Jewish commentator.
Are you inciting anti semtic comments then?
You can get paid Richard, it’s no secret.
But…But…it had to have been those sneaky jews…who else can we blame….
Hamas is the democratically elected government of Palestine, no matter how much this grinds on Israel gears.
Total number of Israelis killed by rocket, mortar or anti-tank fire from Gaza since 2006: 47
(Source: Wikipedia. This is disputed; another source says 26)
Number of Palestinians in Gaza killed by Israeli fire from April 1st 2006 to July 21st 2012: 2,879
(Source: United Nations)
Terrorism??? Palestinians have had their lands stolen, farm lands burned to a crisp, their trees felled, their homes bulldozed to the ground, their children imprisoned, tortured and murdered, schools bombed, women in labor prevented from going to hospital, access to clean water restricted and aid severely restricted . . . the list goes on. And that’s all before we get into the apartheid system in Israel itself. Is this not terrorism? If not why not?
The fact you are not a payed blogger Richard doesn’t belie the fact they have an army of payed bloggers.
Who cares? Good riddance.
One election doesn`t make a democracy.
Kris…
Can’t blame those sneaky Jews? That’s OK, clock has started on the 1st commenter that will blame the warmongering Americans. Tick….tick….tick….
That may all be true Fled, but what does it have to do with this thread?
I was responding to Richard.
Do all Palestine Solidarity activists go to a special school where they learn things like spelling ‘paid’ as ‘payed’? I mean, if we can’t get small things like this right, what hope is there for credibility on big things like outrageous allegations of Israeli ‘genocide’, ‘apartheid’ etc?
An autopsy was not held by request of his wife?? Sure what in the jaysus does she expect so? Women
Who cares how the old paedophile died?
The journal back-pedaling again. “I thought it woz the pesky Joos wot done it”. Check your facts in future. Very sloppy journalism with a strong whiff of anti-semitism.
Israel wasn’t responsible = only 24 comments. A rather disappointing result for thejournal.ie, usually they get a few hundred comments, especially for a front page article on Israel/Palestine.
Its not what the IPSC numbskulls wanted to hear.
Can you imagine the faux outrage (and self-indulgent and barely-concealed triumphalism) if the headline had read “France confirms Arafat was poisoned with polonium”?
not like that nation to lie is it
French experts rule out Arafat poisoning..when they realise he is already dead
The Swiss said poisoning was possible, I don’t recall then commenting on probability?
“French experts?”
A joke, no?
have your say