PLO chief negotiator Saeb Erakat underwent surgery after suffering a heart attack on Tuesday.

According to Erekat’s wife, Naama, he “woke at dawn with chest pains and decided to go to the Palestine medical complex in Ramallah where he underwent medical tests.”

“It turned out he had suffered a heart attack, so they performed an emergency angioplasty at hospital, which was successful,” she told the AFP.

“A blood clot was found in one of his arteries which was opened during the operation,” Hospital director Ahmed Bitawi said.

He said, Erakat, 57, was recovering from the procedure but “needed a period of rest.”

Erakat has been a member of every PLO negotiating team since 1991. He was not, however, among those who secretly negotiated the 1993 Oslo Accords.