Arafat 'not' poised: French report
The French findings differ significantly from those of Swiss scientists.
JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israel said Tuesday it is not surprised that a French investigation into the death of former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat reportedly found that he died of natural causes.
"This is no surprise," Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor told AFP, after a source close to the French probe said experts had ruled out a theory that Arafat had been poisoned.
But a Palestinian team that investigated Yasser Arafat s death and the late leader s nephew said it had reservations about the French report.
"We need to study the report. We can t take a position on it until we ve looked at it," said Tawfiq Tirawi, head of the Palestinian Authority s inquiry into the death.
Arafat s nephew Nasser al-Qidwa said that "until now, I haven t seen the report. But on principle, any new information about Arafat s death, especially from France, needs to corroborate the first medical report on his death in 2004."
Palestinian officials have repeatedly alleged that Arafat was murdered, with some of them pointing the finger at Israel.
On Tuesday, a source close to the French investigation told AFP that a report on its findings "rules out the poisoning theory and goes in the sense of a natural death."
The French findings differ significantly from those of Swiss scientists, who said last month that their research offered some support for the suggestion Arafat was killed by polonium poisoning.
Arafat died at a French military hospital near Paris on November 11, 2004, with doctors unable to say what killed him. At the time, an autopsy was never carried out -- at his widow s request.
But France opened a formal murder inquiry into his death in August 2012, a month after an Al-Jazeera documentary linked his death to polonium poisoning.
Some 60 samples were taken from Arafat s remains in November 2012 and divided between Swiss and Russian investigators and a French team carrying out a probe at his widow s request.
The Swiss team said the test results neither confirmed nor denied polonium was the actual source of his death, although they provided "moderate" backing for the idea he was poisoned by the rare and highly radioactive element.
They said the quantity of the deadly substance found on his remains pointed to the involvement of a third party.
Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas last month demanded an international inquiry to determine who was responsible for killing Arafat, after the Swiss report said their evidence "moderately" supported the notion Arafat was poisoned.
Tirawi said at the time that "Israel is the one and only suspect in the case of Yasser Arafat s assassination".
But Palmor then adamantly denied the accusations, calling the ever-recycled case a "soap opera... episode 100 and something".
