Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi - April 4, 2002

The Friday Prayer Headquarters [Tehran] asked me to lead the Friday prayer because of the march for Palestine, but I refused because of the sensitivity of the day's issues, because I had led the Friday prayer last week. The Supreme Leader agreed to appoint.

Full text of the diary:

We arrived in Tehran at ten o'clock last night. There has been a lot of rain and hail in Tehran and other places, about six millimeters in Shamiran. Today we had extensive rainfall and storms in many provinces of the country, and tomorrow we will have them. I went to my office last night and read the reports until this evening. The Headquarters of the Friday Prayer [in Tehran] asked me to lead the Friday Prayer because of the march for Palestine, but I did not accept it because of the sensitivity of the issues of the day, because I had led the Friday Prayer last week. The Supreme Leader agreed to do so.

I gave a short radio interview about the importance of the people's presence on the scene, to support the oppressed people of Palestine and to put pressure on the governments to take deterrent action against Israel. The Palestinian crisis has intensified, and Nablus has been occupied, and the Jenin hospital has been bombed, and a number of martyrs and wounded have been killed. In some cases, the Palestinians also use RPGs against the attacking tanks. The European Union has sent Spanish Foreign Minister Giuseppe Pique to Palestine to mediate, but Israel has said it will not allow him to meet with Arafat.  

The meeting of the UN Security Council has delayed the approval of the Syrian proposal because the United States has said that it will veto. The proposal calls for Israel to withdraw immediately from the occupied territories, but George W. Bush reportedly asked Israel to end its occupation of new occupied cities. There have also been several clashes between Hezbollah and the Israeli army, both of which are worried, and so is Syria.  

It was reported that a coup d'état had been discovered in Afghanistan by Hezb-e-Islami [Gulbuddin] Hekmatyar, and Hezb-e-Islami quickly denied it, saying that because they wanted to dissolve the party and prosecute the members of the party, they made this accusation.  

General [Pervez] Musharraf, [the president of Pakistan], has announced that he is conducting an opinion poll to continue his presidency, and the Islamists have objected. Egypt has announced that it will suspend all cooperation and negotiations without officially severing ties with Israel. Saudi Arabia has banned any demonstrations in its country in favor of the Palestinians, even though demonstrations are held in all Islamic and European countries.