© Moshe ShaiA Palestinian prisoner says Israel sent him to poison the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in his Ramallah compound in 2004.
Palestinian officials said a report they received from Russia on the role of radioactive polonium in Arafat's death was inconclusive. They spoke just a day after Swiss scientists said the Palestinian leader was probably poisoned by the rare and extremely lethal substance.
Despite those discrepancies, the Swiss and Russian reports agreed that Arafat's death "was not caused by old age or disease, but as a result of a toxic substance," said Dr. Abdullah Bashir, a medical expert in the three-member Palestinian team that has been investigating Arafat's death. This, he told a news conference, is in line with the long-standing Palestinian contention that Arafat was poisoned.
The reports revived Palestinian allegations that Israel was behind the attack, despite its denial.
The Palestinian team's leader, Tawfik Tirawi, said Israel had the technical means and the motive.
"I say, with all the details available about Yasser Arafat's death, that he was killed, and that Israel killed him," he said. The former Palestinian intelligence chief did not present evidence to back up the claims.
In the four years leading up to his death, Arafat's relationship with his longtime nemesis, Israel's then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, had become increasingly hostile. Sharon, a hard-liner, blamed Arafat for encouraging anti-Israeli violence instead of working toward a peace deal and kept him isolated at his West Bank compound for extended periods.
Comment: Who was behind the assassination of Yasser Arafat? The answer to that question was provided by the Israeli government in 2003, a year prior to his death. "We will choose the right way and the right time to kill Arafat."
Murderous Israeli Cabinet: "We will choose the right way and the right time to kill Arafat"
Israel poisoned Arafat, nephew claims