Israeli President Shimon Peres was discharged from hospital today with a clean bill of health. The 86-year-old Nobel peace laureate passed out briefly during a ceremony in Tel Aviv yesterday.
Dr. Zeev Rothstein, director of Sheba-Tel Hashomer Hospital, said Mr Peres was released from their cardiac unit after experts completed evaluating test results.
"I can say to everyone that we have a president who is dynamic, young at heart and physically healthy," said Dr. Zeev Rothstein, director of Sheba Medical Center near Tel Aviv where Peres was kept for observation overnight.
He said there was no immediate explanation for the weakness that overcame Peres as he spoke in Tel Aviv last night and lost consciousness for several moments, and that tests had so far shown him to be in "excellent condition."
Peres recovered quickly but was taken for observation to the hospital near Tel Aviv.
Efrat Duvdevani, a spokeswoman for Peres, whose post as head of state is largely ceremonial, said he would likely go ahead with plans to meet US President Barack Obama's Middle East envoy, George Mitchell, negotiating to renew peace talks.
The Polish-born former prime minister is a veteran of Israeli left-of-centre politics, with a career going back to before the founding of the Jewish state in 1948.
As foreign minister, along with Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, Peres won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994 for reaching a series of ground-breaking interim accords.
He was elected president by parliament in 2007. In that capacity, he has continued to speak out in the cause of peace with the Palestinians and other Arab neighbours, although his interim deal has yet to produce a final peace settlement.
Reuters