LONDON, Sept 27 (AFP) - Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has intervened on behalf of Kenneth Bigley, the British engineer held hostage in Iraq since September 16, his brother Paul Bigley said Monday, describing the gesture as "fantastic news".
Questioned in the Netherlands where he resides, Paul Bigley told the 24-hour news channel ITV News that Arafat's intervention marked the biggest progress yet made in the campaign to secure the release of his brother.
Kenneth Bigley is being held by a radical group headed by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi who has already beheaded two American contractors who were seized with him.
Paul Bigley said he had been contacted by a Palestinian envoy to Ireland who had told him that Arafat had written to a Palestinian minister who lived for some years in Iraq to "do everything possible" to save Bigley.
Earlier Monday, Bigley called for the resignation of British Prime Minister Tony Blair, saying that he had lost all credibility.
"Mr Blair is a gentleman, he's a statesman if you like, but I'm afraid to say, his sell-by date has really gone," Bigley said of Blair.
"He has not got the credibility to negotiate the purchase of a bicycle," he told BBC radio.