Not Poisoning, But Israel Still Bears the Blame

Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath on the reasons for Arafat's illness:

"We know what it is not. It is not malignancy or cancer anywhere in his body and the doctors today ruled out completely poisoning, so we can also rule out that cause as well.

'That leaves many explanations. The doctors by and large favour the explanation that his age - he's 75 years old - his difficult life, the last three-and-a-half years incarcerated in a very small office, which had very little oxygen and very bad sanitary situation, in siege by the Israeli army, have contributed to a variety of digestive tract ailments. "