CLAMART, France, 11 November 2004 — There will be no euthanasia for Yasser Arafat, a senior Palestinian cleric said here yesterday.

“This is against religious law (Shariah), Tayssir Bayoud Tamimi told reporters after visiting the ailing leader in his hospital room.

“There is positive ijtihad that he must be kept alive for as long as God wants. There is no question of switching off the life-support machine as long as there is any sign of life in him.”

Tamimi, a long-time personal friend of Arafat, denied reports that he had been sent to France to offer a religious opinion on whether or not the Palestinian leader should be taken off life-support machine.

“I’m here to be by my long time friend’s side in his time of need and to pray for his speedy recovery,” Tamimi, told reporters at the hospital gate.

Tamimi said that the Israelis had circulated news of possible euthanasia for Arafat as a means of “causing confusion”.

“Islam rejects what is known as mercy killing,” he said. “No one has to bring a life to an end as long as there are signs that it continues in any form.”

But aides said Arafat’s health was deteriorating, with a “complication” to his vital organs as doctors struggle to stop the bleeding in his brain.

The Palestinian envoy to France, Leila Shahid, had insisted in an interview with France-Info radio that Tamimi was not coming “to disconnect” Arafat from life support.

“It is clear, as for a Christian, as for a Jew, that a religious man needs to be with his patient when he is in the final phase of his life,” Shahid said. “That is why he is here.”

Before flying to Paris, Tamimi contacted several other Palestinian religious leaders, including Christians, to work out a consensus against any early termination of Arafat’s life.

Tamimi said he did not know how long Arafat might stay on life-support machine.

But there are indications that the Palestinian leaders decided not to consider euthanasia for their dying leader because they do not expect him to struggle on for much longer.

A Palestinian official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Wednesday that French doctors told the Palestinian delegation that this kind of bleeding meant that Arafat’s death was expected within 24 hours — a period that has since passed.