File Photo: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas speaks during a meeting of the UN Security Council at UN headquarters in New York, U.S., February 20, 2018 (Photo: Reuters)
The Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, has gone into hospital in the United States for a routine check, a senior Palestinian official told Reuters on Thursday.
"He is in the hospital now doing ordinary checks," the official said by telephone, without giving further details.
Abbas, 82, addressed the U.N. Security Council in New York on Feb. 20 and called for an international conference to be held by mid-2018 to kick-start the stalled peace process with Israel.
He was expected to leave the U.S. for Venezuela for an official visit, according to his office in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank. That visit was scheduled to start on Feb. 21.
In October 2016, Abbas was taken to hospital in the West Bank without prior public announcement for heart function tests which, a doctor said, showed normal results.
Abbas became Palestinian president after the death in 2004 of Yasser Arafat.
There has been no new coverage of Abbas on the official Palestinian news agency Wafa since Feb. 20, when he met with delegations after his U.N. speech.
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