Kings and heads of states from 50 countries at Arafat's funeral
Cairo (AsiaNews) Kings and presidents, foreign ministers and other leaders from over 50 countries walked in a funeral procession behind Mr Arafat's flag-draped coffin. Units of the Egyptian armed forces gave full military honours to the casket drawn on a gun carriage by a black horse along the broad Salem Street that led from a large funeral tent at the Galaa Clubwhere world dignitaries had gatheredto the nearby al-Maza airbase.
Arafat's solemn final journey was in line with Egypt's funeral ceremonial for heads of state, the same used for Nasser in 1970 and Sadat in 1981. The President of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) was then flown to Ramallah for burial.
Yasser Arafat's funeral, attended by his wife Suha and his 9-year-old daughter Zahwa, was divided in three distinct stages. It began at 9:30 am with short funeral prayers at a mosque on the military base.
"He has served his people all his life, until he faced his God, with courage and honesty. Let us pray for his soul," said Mohammed Sayed Tantawi, Grand Sheik of al-Azhar and Egypt's highest religious authority.
After the short prayer the coffin was carried by an honour guard and placed inside a silver hearse and driven to the big tent where world dignitaries had gathered.
A high-level Palestinian delegation had welcomed the foreign leaders. It included Abu Mazen, newly-appointed leader of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation and former Primer Minister, Fatah Farouk Kaddoumi , the new chairman of Arafat's Fatah party and Rawhi Fattouh, the new President of the Palestinian National Authority as well Nasser al Kidwa, Arafat's nephew and PNA's representative at the United Nations.
Among the delegations inside the tent there was the Vatican's led by the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Michel Sabbah. Also present were US Deputy Secretary of State William Burns and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana.
The casket stood inside the tent for an hour surrounded by an honour guard as the foreign dignitaries filed in to be seated on one side.
With the arrival of the Saudi delegation everyone moved outside to start the third and final stage in the ceremony.
In the meantime, young Palestinians this morning tried to force their way through Israeli security check points and clashed with Israeli police on the Esplanade of the Mosques in Jerusalem.
Concerned of possible unrest, Israel has beefed up security around the holy place and declared it off-limit to any non Israeli under 45.
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