Aide Denies Arafat Has Sclerosis
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JERUSALEM — Palestinian officials on Friday denied a report in a London-based journal that Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat has developed arterial sclerosis and is suffering from memory lapses.
The Foreign Report’s Thursday editions cited officials close to Arafat as saying that “the man with the legendary memory cannot remember what happened yesterday.”
Arafat aide Ahmed Tibi, a physician, called the report “nonsense.”
“These are the same lies concerning the health of the chairman published every five or six months,” Tibi said, adding that Arafat’s health was excellent.
Tibi said Arafat, 69, who was in Rome on Friday meeting Pope John Paul II, sees a doctor periodically.
Arterial sclerosis is a hardening of the blood vessels that can restrict blood supply to the brain.
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