Wife Visits Arafat in Jordan After His Brain Surgery
Palestine Liberation Organization chief Yasser Arafat’s wife arrived in Amman on Tuesday and was rushed to the hospital where her husband is recovering from brain surgery, security officials said.
Journalists eager to get a glimpse of 28-year-old Suha Tawil, who wed Arafat, 62, in a secret ceremony last year, were cleared from the airport exit and the entrance to King Hussein Medical Center.
Witnesses said the tall blonde, surrounded by security guards, walked briskly to the hospital door with her eyes to the ground after emerging from a white Mercedes.
Word leaked out in February that Arafat, made president of the Palestinian state proclaimed by the Palestinian parliament-in-exile in 1988, had married Tawil, a Christian Palestinian researcher. Arafat is a Muslim.
Arafat underwent surgery Monday to remove blood clots in the brain caused by a plane crash in the Libyan desert in April.
On Tuesday, Dr. Yousef Ksous, director of medical services at the hospital, said that Arafat had been moved out of the intensive care unit Monday evening.
“He is awake and recovering well,” Ksous said.
Defying doctors’ orders to limit visitors to close aides, dozens of Jordanian and Palestinian officials and Arab and Asian diplomats converged on the medical center to check on Arafat. Hallways outside his room were packed with people and scores of bouquets.
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