Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi – February 24, 1999

After praying and having breakfast, we went to visit the shrine of [Hazrat Fatima Masoumeh (PBUH)] and the graves of [Mah Bibi Safarian], her father, and [Mirza Ali Hashemi Behrmani], her father. Then we went to the [Council of Leadership Experts] meeting. The lectures, plans and issues were similar to yesterday evening's meeting. In breathing, we negotiated with a group of members. Usually, they expect me to spend more time on activating the Assembly of Experts.

After lunch and rest, Mr. Seyyed Mohsen Mousavi Tabrizi, [representative of the Assembly of Experts] came. He raised complaints about the leadership and right-wing forces, including the failure to lift the ban on Ayatollah Montazeri and the lack of attention to references and the Grand Ayatollah's failure to refer to the verses and references for leadership, the poverty and need of the students, and the right wing's abuse of leadership.

Then the board of directors [Council of Experts] had a meeting. Mr. [Ebrahim] Amini was angry that tomorrow's meeting with the experts was set at eleven in the morning. He believed that they did this at the suggestion of Mr. [Ahmed] Janati, because usually in the past ceremonies, there was a speech before the noon prayer, and if this is the case, the meeting with the leadership would take until noon and we would have to pray there, and the program with Mr. Khatami, [President], would only be lunch. I told my companions to call the leadership office and ask for my word to postpone the meeting. They accepted the leadership and the appointment was made at half past ten in the morning.

The evening session was similar to the morning session. We announced the closing statement of the meeting and it was completed with the good suggestions given by the members. A letter was received from Mr. [Syed Mohammad] Khatami, [the President], who invited the experts to a party tomorrow afternoon. I also invited them for dinner and emphasized that those who have work should go and not wait for the schedule.

After Maghrib and Isha prayers, some people from Hezbollah forces came and while expressing concern about the current situation, they asked me to establish a party and come to the square like in the first years of the revolution, and they also criticized Zan newspaper. I said to them, it is your fault that you have hurt Faeza unnecessarily and you have opposed unjustly.