The Palestinian ambassador to Russia announced Thursday that the Palestinian authorities will press on with a probe into the death of Yasser Arafat

The Palestinian ambassador to Russia announced Thursday that the Palestinian authorities will press on with a probe into the death of Yasser Arafat after Russian experts ruled out the possibility he was poisoned.
  
"I can only say that there is already a decision to continue (the investigation)," Faed Mustafa, the Palestinian ambassador to Russia, told the state RIA Novosti news agency. "We respect their position, we highly value their work but there is a decision to continue work."
  
Earlier Thursday Russian forensic experts studying Arafat's remains said the leader died a natural death and ruled out radiation poisoning. "We have completed all the studies," Vladimir Uiba, head of Russia's Federal Medical-Biological Agency (FMBA), told a news conference. "The person died a natural death and not from radiation."
  
Arafat's remains were exhumed last year and some 60 samples were taken and divided between Swiss and Russian investigators as well as a French team carrying out a probe at the request of Arafat's widow, Suha.
  
The French have also ruled out poisoning, while the Swiss report said high levels of radioactive polonium indicated third party involvement in Arafat's 2004 death.

The Swiss expert who examined samples of Arafat's remains dismissed as a "political declaration" the statement by Russian researchers. "The Russians, they make claims without providing any data, without providing any scientific arguments, for me that is empty, a political declaration," said Francois Bochud, director of the Lausanne Radiophysics Institute.

Bochud criticised the Russians for not releasing their report. Bochud was the co-author of a report released on November 7 that found high levels of polonium, up to 20 times the normal level. It said the findings were consistent with radioactive poisoning without saying conclusively that Arafat's death was due to the polonium.