Foreign Minister attends funeral of Yasser Arafat

The Czech foreign minister, Cyril Svoboda, was one of many state leaders and officials who attended the funeral of President Yasser Arafat on Friday morning in Cairo. Earlier, Mr Svoboda said that Mr Arafat had played a major role in the history of Palestine, stressing the Palestinian leader would be greatly missed by his people. Mr Svoboda added that the Nobel Peace Prize winner could be regarded as a controversial figure because of his role in the troubling Middle East conflict.

In the 1970s and 1980s communist Czechoslovakia provided political and financial support to the Palestine Liberation Organisation, as well as arms and military training. Mr Arafat visited former Czechoslovakia on several occasions.