AMMAN, 3 June 2005 — Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas left hospital yesterday after “reassuring” medical checkup, including a cardiac catheterization, and his doctors said he was ready to return home to carry out his duties. “The president is now at the Guest House and in good health and will be proceeding later to Ramallah to resume his duties as normal,” Palestinian Charge d’Affaires Atallah Khairy told Arab News. “His doctors assured us that he does not need surgery,” he said.
Abbas was admitted to Jordan Hospital Wednesday night, where he underwent “comprehensive medical checkup including a cardiac catheterization”, the hospital’s director Dr. Abdullah Al-Bashir said.
“We found his examinations reassuring and normal and his condition does not require any intervention of any type,” he added.
Abbas made a stopover in Amman Wednesday while on his way back home from a trip that took him to the United States, Canada and North African countries.
In remarks to the Amman-based members of the Palestinian National Council (PNA), the Palestinian leader confirmed that June 21 had been set as a new date for a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, but dubbed shifting the encounter from its original date on June 7 as “a type of Israeli procrastination”.
“Israel has been procrastinating in implementing the understanding items worked out at Sharm El-Sheikh and citing every pretext to evade abiding by what had been agreed upon,” Abbas said.
He referred to a meeting between him, Sharon, King Abdallah of Jordan and the Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak at the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh in March.
The Palestinian and Israeli sides then agreed to observe a truce, with the Israeli prime minister pledging to pull out Israeli troops from major cities in the West Bank and release Palestinian prisoners.
Abbas said that during their meeting in Washington, US President George W. Bush was “quite clear in his remarks that the planned Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip should be part of the road map, and that it should be followed by a similar pullout from the West Bank”.
However, the Palestinian leader rejected assurances given by Bush to Sharon last year that “facts on the ground” should be taken into account in the final status settlement between Israel and the Palestinians.
Bush referred to key Jewish settlements near Jerusalem and other major cities in the Palestinian territories. “Such assurances are prejudicial because they preempt the outcome of the final status negotiations,” Abbas said.
