Official sources deny report on Arafat's will on successor

Official Palestinian sources Friday denied an Israeli report that ailing Yasser Arafat left a will saying that Farouq al Qadoomi, chief of the Political Bureau in the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), is to be his successor.

    Israeli newspaper Daily of Maariv reported earlier that according to Palestinian sources, Arafat gave his wife Suha a
written will saying that al Qadoomi will be his successor in leading the PLO and the Palestinian National Authority (PNA).
    The daily also claimed that Arafat's nephew Nasser al Qedwa, the Palestinian representative at the United Nations, also know about the written will that Arafat handed to Suha.

    The Palestinian sources that spoke in conditions of anonymity said that "the daily report are totally untrue."

    The Israeli media "has been trying to publish false reports " that aim at causing confusion among the Palestinians," stressed thesources.

    According to the Israeli daily, a Palestinian official said that when Arafat was awake at Percy Hospital in France, he called al Qadoomi to come to the hospital to inform him about the important issue.

If the will is true and al Qadoomi accepts the position, he would chair the PLO and would rule the PNA together with the Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei, said the paper.

Source: Xinhua