Abbas on track to succeed Arafat

RAMALLAH, West Bank — Mahmoud Abbas, an experienced negotiator and a former prime minister, was named chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization yesterday within hours of Yasser Arafat’s death. This puts him on a track to become the next overall leader of the Palestinians.

As thousands of mourners filled the streets of the West Bank and Gaza Strip to pay tribute to Mr. Arafat, the Palestinian leader’s body was flown from Paris to Cairo for a state funeral at a mosque near the international airport.

Heads of state and diplomats from most of the world are expected to pay their last respects at the ceremony today, after which the coffin will be flown to Ramallah for burial tomorrow.

Of the about 50 state delegations at the Cairo funeral, most will be led by foreign ministers of their respective countries.

Among the heads of state attending are Jordan’s King Abdullah, Lebanese President Emile Lahoud, Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and Presidents Iajuddin Ahmed of Bangladesh and newly elected Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono of Indonesia. South African President Thabo Mbeki and Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade also are on the guest list.

The attendees will constitute the highest-profile gathering of international leaders in the region since the funeral of former Syrian President Hafez Assad in 2000.

The U.S. representative will be William Burns, a senior American diplomat and Middle East specialist.

The cause of Mr. Arafat’s death at a hospital outside Paris yesterday morning remained a mystery. French military doctors who treated the Palestinian leader said it was “private information” for his family only.

“I have no declaration to make on that subject,” a spokesman for the French military’s medical service, Christian Estripeau, told Agence France-Presse.

The only persons in a position to reveal the medical secret are Mr. Arafat’s family, primarily his wife, Suha.

It also was not clear whether the Palestinians would be able to recover billions of dollars placed in secret accounts by Mr. Arafat.

“The billions in foreign aid that Arafat kept under his personal control are now being reviewed by his former accountant, with the expectation that the Palestinian Authority will assume control of it soon,” one American intelligence source told The Washington Times.

Tension rose in Israel, which is worried that memorial ceremonies for Mr. Arafat could spark violence.

The Israeli military authorities sealed off West Bank cities, and Jerusalem police were put on high alert in case Friday Muslim prayer services at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem deteriorate into rioting.

Mr. Arafat had hoped to be buried on Temple Mount, which Muslims call the Nobel Sanctuary, but Israel refused to allow his burial inside Jerusalem.

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