Palestinians seek international probe of arafat’s death

The Palestinians on Wednesday called for an international probe into Yasser Arafat’s death, raising the possibility of his exhumation, after a report said he may have been poisoned. The comments came a day after AlJazeera broadcast the results of a nine-month investigation it commissioned on Arafat’s 2004 death, which found the Palestinian leader could have been poisoned with the radioactive substance polonium. Senior Palestinian official Saeb Erakat called for an investigation into Arafat’s death. “We call for the formation of an international investigation committee, modelled on the international investigation committee set up to look into the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri,” he told AFP. And Tawfiq Tirawi, who led a Palestinian probe into Arafat’s death, said Palestinian authorities would be willing to allow an analysis of samples from the leader’s remains — which are buried in Ramallah — if his family agrees. “After the AlJazeera broadcast I met today with president (Mahmud) Abbas and recommended accepting an analysis of the body of the martyr president Arafat, and Abbas for his part agreed on the condition that the family ... accepts,” he said. The Al-Jazeera investigation centred on forensic testing of items belonging to Arafat, including clothing worn by him, which were handed to his widow Suha by the Paris hospital where the Palestinian leader died in 2004. Suha Arafat gave Al-Jazeera permission to take the items, which contained strands of Arafat’s hair and traces of sweat, urine and blood, for testing at several European laboratories, including in Switzerland.