Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas left a West Bank
hospital on Thursday after undergoing heart function tests which showed normal
results, a doctor said.
He walked out of the hospital, beaming and waving to
reporters, before being whisked away in his presidential motorcade.
"Thank God everything is fine, I had the surgery,
it was easy and I'm leaving now," said Abbas, who spoke briefly to
Palestine TV before leaving hospital.
Abbas, 81, was taken to the facility without prior
public announcement earlier in the day. He has long been reported to be
suffering from heart problems but Palestinian political officials have never
confirmed this.
"The president was hospitalised today for routine
tests and we performed a (cardiac) catheterization. The results look
normal," Saeed Sarahneh, a senior doctor at Istishari Arab Hospital in the
West Bank city of Ramallah, told reporters while Abbas was still at the hospital.
In the procedure, a thin plastic tube is inserted into
an artery or vein, and then advances into the heart chambers to diagnose and
clear any blockage.
Attending the funeral in Jerusalem on Friday of Israeli
statesman Shimon Peres, Abbas showed no outward sign of ill health. At the
ceremony, he briefly chatted and shook hands with Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu.
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