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, ina 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 theresumption of
the Israeli-Palestinian negotiation. "Now things areclear. 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.