Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani's Memoirs - December 17, 1999 Ayatollah Khamenei delivered the Friday prayer sermon today, where he openly criticized the left-wing faction, which later became known as the reformists.

I was at home today. As usual during Ramadan, I woke up at a quarter to four in the morning with the alarm. I spent the time until five in the morning in prayer and reciting the Quran, followed by suhoor. I had suhoor with Kazem [Marashi, my brother-in-law], and after the morning prayer, I slept until 8 AM.

Mohsen and Mehdi came by. We discussed their candidacy in Rafsanjan. I had conditioned their participation on the invitation from both key factions in Rafsanjan. By noon, they had decided not to run, but in the afternoon, Sheikh Hossein Hashemian, who had registered in Tehran, again asked Mohsen to register in Rafsanjan, but Mohsen refused. It was decided that Ali—my nephew—would run instead. There were also requests for Fa'ezeh and Fatemeh to run, but they declined. Mr. Hossein Marashi also came by, saying he had decided not to run in Kerman. I told him it would be better to register for now and withdraw later if necessary, which he agreed to do.

Ayatollah Khamenei led the Friday prayers today and made clear and direct criticisms of some newspapers and the actions of those who now call themselves reformists. He had previously pointed out that the term "reformist" was not appropriate for the Second of Khordad movement, but others did not follow up on this, and the term became popular.

In the evening, I attended the ceremony marking the seventh anniversary of Dr. [Mohammad] Mofatteh’s martyrdom at Qoba Mosque and spoke about the cooperation between the seminary and universities and Dr. Mofatteh’s role in this regard.

Today, the U.N. Security Council passed a resolution to renew inspections in Iraq. The lifting of sanctions is contingent on Iraq’s acceptance and implementation of the resolution. Iraq has already rejected it.