Talabani in Jordan For Blood Pressure Tests
Feb 25,
2007
By
Claudia Parsons
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq's President Jalal
Talabani is ill and traveled to Jordan for tests after a drop in blood pressure,
a senior government official said on Sunday, but his office said there was no
cause for concern.
Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih told Reuters
Talabani left for Amman on Sunday afternoon and would be treated at a specialist
hospital in the Jordanian capital.
"He had a drop in blood pressure. Doctors said
he needs further tests," said Salih, a Kurd who is very close to the president,
a former Kurdish guerrilla leader in his early 70s.
A statement from Talabani's office said: "There
is no cause for concern," but gave no details of his illness.
"Because of his hard work in past days,
President Jalal Talabani has become ill and the doctors advised him to take some
tests and now he is on his way to Jordan," the statement said.
A close aide to Talabani denied media reports
the president had suffered a heart attack. "It's a lie. He is exhausted, he's
very tired, he had a very long week in Sulaimani meeting with party leaders,"
the aide told Reuters.
"This morning he woke up and he felt very
tired. The doctor checked him up and didn't find anything wrong. But Sulaimaniya
doesn't have all the technology and he is the president so the doctor convinced
him to do further tests," he said, adding that Talabani was on his feet when he
went to the airport.
Talabani's post is largely ceremonial but he is
an influential political figure with close links to Washington.
On Saturday, Talabani met U.S. Ambassador
Zalmay Khalilzad in the autonomous region of Kurdistan in northern Iraq and held
a joint news conference with Kurdish regional president Masoud Barzani.
Talabani heads the secular, socialist Patriotic
Union of Kurdistan (PUK), one of two parties that dominate the Kurdish enclave
that broke away from Baghdad's control after the 1991 Gulf war.
A former guerrilla leader who fought Saddam for
years, Talabani capped a life dedicated to the Kurdish cause by becoming Iraq's
first Kurdish head of state.
Born in 1933, Talabani has spent most of his
life fighting for independence for Kurds. He is known affectionately among Kurds
as Mam, or uncle.
