Arafat foundation: ‘no need for more proof’ of poison.

Arafat foundation: ‘no need for more proof’ of poison.(AA).The Yasser Arafat Foundation said Sunday there was “no need” for more proof the Palestinian leader was poisoned in what appeared to be a stance against French plans to exhume his body. “Since the formation of this Foundation, it has forcefully held on to the fact that Yasser Arafat died abnormally after being killed by a poison which was unidentified at the time,” it said in a statement. “The Foundation does not see a need here for more proof.” The statement was issued just days after a delegation of French magistrates said they would travel to travel to the West Bank to investigate following claims Arafat may have succumbed to poisoning by the radioactive substance polonium. No date has been given for the trip which would involve forensic officers exhuming the body and taking samples for laboratory testing in an investigation sought by Arafat’s widow Suha. Speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, a source from the Foundation said they would only agree to a further examination of his body if it was conducted as part of an international investigation committee. “If there is an international committee, we will agree to the body being checked,” he said, without explaining further. Arafat died in a French military hospital near Paris on Nov. 11, 2004 and French experts were unable say what had killed him, with many Palestinians subscribing to the belief that he was poisoned by Israel. In July, president Mahmud Abbas and Suha Arafat both gave their consent for samples to be taken from his remains, which are buried in a mausoleum in the West Bank city of Ramallah.Read the full story here.