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French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier affirmed Sunday that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is "alive" and in a "very complex, very serious but stable condition".
He also announced that three Palestinian leaders, acting Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) leader Mahmud Abbas and Palestinian prime minister Ahmed Qurei and Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath are expected to arrive Monday in Paris to visit Yasser Arafat, who was admitted on Oct. 29 in the Percy military hospital in the southwestern Paris suburb of Clamart.
"Yasser Arafat is receiving treatment, good treatment in France, in line with the wishes of his friends and family. He is alive, in a very serious, stable condition," French private radio RTL and private television LCI quoted Barnier as saying.
"Tomorrow Abu Mazen (Abbas), Abu Alaa (Qurei) and Nabil Shaathare coming to Paris to visit their chief, Yasser Arafat, and I will receive them tomorrow afternoon to continue dialog with them, a frank dialog," he said.
The French minister said the US election paved the way for the resumption of the Israeli-Palestinian negotiation. "Now things are clear. President Bush was reelected and I am rather certain that the Americans will be willing and need to throw themselves to relaunch the peace process between Israelis and Palestinians."
Barnier supports elections in Palestine and said that the European Union was ready to help strengthen the Palestinian Authority's legitimacy.
(Xinhua News Agency November 8, 2004)
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