Akbar Hashemi's Memoirs - October 7, 2002

Still, the main debate revolves around the bill to increase the powers of the president.

Atrianfar, editor-in-chief of Hamshahri newspaper, said over the phone that the court has banned Hamshahri from distribution outside Tehran. A solution has been proposed to transfer the newspaper to another company so it can be nationwide, but Mr. Mohseni-Ejei, head of the Special Judicial Complex for Government Employees, does not accept it.

Full diary entry:

I stayed at home. Due to fever and chills, I canceled the office programs. Tasks were brought to me, I completed them; still, the main debate revolves around the bill to increase the powers of the president.

Mr. Mohammad Atrianfar, editor-in-chief of Hamshahri (who had a scheduled meeting today that was canceled), said over the phone that the court has banned Hamshahri from distribution outside Tehran, and a solution has been proposed to transfer the newspaper to another company to make it nationwide; however, Mr. Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei, head of the Special Judicial Complex for Government Employees, does not accept this. He wanted me to remind him not to prevent it.

Mr. Seyed Ahmad Marashi, in Ardestan, collided with a pedestrian which resulted in the pedestrian’s death; the person was from the Tabatabai family.

In global media, there is extensive discussion and analysis of yesterday’s anti-war demonstration in London. Under international pressure, the Israeli army withdrew from the siege of Yasser Arafat’s headquarters, and Arafat, as usual, came among the people gathered around the headquarters and raised his fingers in a V-sign as a symbol of victory.

In northern Afghanistan, armed clashes between forces of Abdul Rashid Dostum and Ata Mohammad Noor (former governor of Balkh) left several dead and wounded. The UN officially announced that this year’s opium cultivation in Afghanistan has increased tenfold compared to last year, causing embarrassment for the U.S. and the West, who claim to fight drugs.

After 20 years, the Iraqi government admitted during the anniversary of the Iran-Iraq war that the war started on 22 September 1980, meaning Iraq’s aggression began it; previously, they had claimed the war started on 4 September with scattered Iranian incursions into Iraq, and Iraq only responded on 22 September. Western governments, especially the U.S. and the U.K., have repeatedly acknowledged Iraq’s international violations during the war, explicitly mentioning the use of chemical weapons and attacks on civilians as war crimes, while Western media have simultaneously held the West responsible for Iraq’s access to these weapons.