World News 28-10-2004 Arafat On Deathbed who: Yasser Arafat what: Gathers senior Palestinians round him as health declines where: Ramallah, West Bank when: Today snippet: "Palestinian leaders were summoned to Yasser Arafat`s bedside in his headquarters in Ramallah last night," says The Telegraph, "where the man who has led the Palestinian movement for more than three decades appeared to be fighting for his life." "Although Mr Arafat`s spokesman Nabil Abu Iredeneh had insisted earlier that he was in good health," reports The Independent`s Donald McIntyre, "Palestinian Legislative Council sources said that a team of Egyptian doctors despatched by President Hosni Mubarak was hoping to visit the PLO chairman`s bedside today." Yesterday, Israeli defence minister Shaul Mofaz gave permission for Mr Arafat to be transferred to a local hospital, but the offer was declined. Should the president die, the question of who would replace him will be a difficult one, since the 75-year-old - who has been effectively imprisoned inside his Ramallah compound for the last three years - has made every effort to keep power over the Palestinian Authority to himself. The BBC`s Middle East analyst Roger Hardy says there are two groups of possible successors, Arafat`s long-term allies like Ahmed Qurei (better known as Abu Ala) or Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) and younger men, who have fallen out of favour with Mr Arafat, like Mohammed Dahlan and Jibril Rajoub. "Another local leader who has come to prominence during the current intifada is Marwan Barghouti," writes Hardy. "He was the head of Mr Arafat`s political organisation, Fatah, in the West Bank. Many believe him to be the most popular Palestinian politician after Mr Arafat." [... more]

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