Arafat’s Nephew Has Doubts

Yasser Arafat’s nephew said Saturday that his uncle may have died an “unnatural” death, a statement certain to renew speculation among Palestinians and in the rest of the Arab world, where many believe the late leader was poisoned by Israel.

Nasser Kidwa, who is also the Palestinian envoy to the United Nations, made the comments after he handed over the 558-page French medical dossier on Arafat’s health to Palestinian officials in Ramallah. No diagnosis or reason has been given for Arafat’s death Nov. 11 at a French hospital. Israel has repeatedly denied poisoning the leader, who was 75.

Kidwa said French doctors could not rule out poisoning but had not found traces of “any poison known to them” in Arafat’s body.

“Examinations of X-rays and all imaginable tests ... are still with the same results, the inability of reaching a clear diagnosis,” Kidwa said during a news conference.

“That is precisely the reason why suspicions are there, because without a reason you cannot escape the other possibility ... that there is unnatural cause for the death,” he said.

French officials have said that judicial authorities would have opened an investigation if they had suspected foul play.