BEIRUT, Lebanon -- A former adviser to Yasser Arafat Tuesday accused Israel of poisoning the late Palestinian leader.
Bassam Abu Sharif was quoted by the Qatari al-Jazeera television as saying he had addressed a letter to Arafat in June 2002 warning him of Israel's plan to assassinate him through poison that causes the erosion of blood platelets.
"Arafat was killed in exactly the same way as Dr. Wahid Haddad, the late chief of foreign operations at the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and that is with poison that breaks down the platelets in the blood," Abu Sharif told al-Jazeera, which is monitored in Beirut.
He said all the symptoms experienced by Arafat were similar to those Haddad suffered before he died in a hospital in East Germany from poison that infiltrated the body through the taste buds.
"I wrote a letter to President Arafat warning him not to eat anything except canned food and meals prepared by people he trusted and not to drink anything except water," Abu Sharif said.
