PALESTINIAN president Mahmoud Abbas has been discharged from a West Bank hospital, ending a week-long stay that drew attention to the 83-year-old’s health problems and uncertain succession plan.
Speaking in a steady voice, he said he would quickly return to work and paid tribute to supporters around the world for their concern.
“Thank God I’m discharged from the hospital today in full health, and will return back to work from tomorrow,” he said.
Abbas, a long-time smoker with weight problems, has a history of health issues and was hospitalised last weekend with a fever, just days after undergoing ear surgery.
Palestinian officials said he had pneumonia and was on a respirator, receiving antibiotics intravenously.
The series of health scares have revived anxiety over a potentially bloody succession battle.
After more than a decade of avoiding discussion of the post-Abbas era, Palestinian officials have cautiously begun to breach the matter in the open, mostly by playing down the crisis, even while potential successors are quietly jockeying for position.
“Some are using the president’s illness for political gain. Shame on them,” said Jibril Rajoub, a former security chief who is considered to be one of the would-be successors.
Abbas Zaki, a top official in Abbas’ ruling Fatah party, dodged the question of succession, saying the Palestine Liberation Organisation, an umbrella governing body, “will be in charge if the president’s post is empty”.
The president hinted that his health had been affected by the stress created by the US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
“If the Jerusalem issue put me in the hospital, I want to leave while Jerusalem is our capital,” he told reporters in a brief statement.
The Palestinians strongly objected to the US decision on Jerusalem, and the subsequent move of the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem this month.
Abbas took over as a caretaker leader following the death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in 2004, and was elected for what was supposed to be a five-year term the following year.
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