WASHINGTON, October 19, 2017 (WAFA) – Saeb Erekat, secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s (PLO) Executive Committee and its chief negotiator, left on Wednesday the intensive care unit at Inova Fairfax Hospital in Virginia as he recovers from a lung transplant.

“Thank God, the excellent doctors at Inova Hospital, your support, today I am out of the intensive care unit. Everything went well. Look forward,” Erekat said in a statement from his hospital bed.

Erekat, 62, long time chief negotiator with Israel, was suffering from a debilitating lung disease known as pulmonary fibrosis, which occurs when lung tissues become damaged and the only way to cure the damage is through lung transplant.

Erekat underwent a successful lung transplant surgery at Inova on October 12.

Fellow PLO member Hanan Ashrawi, who is on a speaking tour in the U.S., and Chief Representative of the PLO Delegation to the U.S. Husam Zomlot visited Erekat on Wednesday at hospital to check on his condition and to wish him a speedy recovery.

M.K.