Akbar Hashemi's memoirs - 1999 September 1 - Khamenei's extremely important speech in Mashhad against the newspapers, which was harsh in the description of Hashemi's writings

The meeting of the leaders of the Palestinian groups this morning and evening with Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani after issuing arrest warrants for a number of them and closing their offices in Jordan.

Meeting of land surveying experts and expert work report for the infrastructure commission of the Assembly.

Imam Juma and members of the Bardsir city council of Kerman province met with Hashemi to get his support for the development of the city.

Khamenei's extremely important speech in Mashhad against the newspapers was harsh according to Hashemi's writing.

This speech was after writing two controversial articles in the Neshat newspaper. The first article on August 24, 1999, was written by Hossein Bagherzadeh, and the other one, written by Emaduddin Baghi, on August 30th, was about revenge and execution.

Khamenei clearly said in a part of his speech in Mashhad: "Anyone who denies the essentials of religion, including religious retribution, is an apostate, and the verdict of an apostate is also known in Islam."

This speech caused a wave of arrests, including Latif Safari, the responsible director, Masha Allah, Shams al-Waezin, the editor, and Emad al-Din. Of course, Hossein Bagherzadeh was not in Iran at that time, and Hashemi's memories will come in the following days.

Continuation of arguments and media discussions about the words before the Friday prayer sermons of Muhammad Taghi Misbah Yazdi.

Mr. Ramadan Abdullah, the leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and a group of his comrades came. They gave a report on the situation in Palestine and about the weakness of the self-governing government that they said in front of Israel and the disloyalty of [Israeli Prime Minister] Barak [Ehud] Barak to their promises, and they consider the Jordanian government's move against Hamas offices to be the implementation of the order of Israel and the United States, to intimidate the Palestinian fighters. who expressed doubts about Syria's position.

They criticized the participation of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the leader of Hamas, in the congress where the Israelis were also present, and appreciated Iran's aid to the Palestinian struggle and me personally.

A group of land development experts came. They reported the work that they have done for the Assembly and the Infrastructure Commission. is unfinished; I gave tickets to complete the work.

Mr. [Ahmed Ali] Taheri, the imam of Bardsir [Kerman], came together with the members of the city council and requested the acceleration of gas supply and the completion of steel and automobile factories.

In the evening, Mr. Khalid Meshaal, Musa Abu Marzouq, and Ibrahim Ghoshe, from the heads of Hamas, came. All three of them have been arrested in Jordan after their trip to Iran, and their offices have been closed. They decide to return; Even if they are arrested.

They criticized the policy and actions of [Yasser] Arafat, [the head of the Palestine Liberation Organization] and [the organization] Fatah, and they consider [Ehud] Barak, [Israeli Prime Minister] similar to [Benjamin] Netanyahu, with the difference in slogans and hypocrisy, and they believe that Barak will not give concessions on the issue of Quds and the Palestinian army and prisoners and immigrants.

Arafat's current situation is getting worse day by day and they say that Israel has only agreed to the release of 350 prisoners that they captured. While there are about three thousand Palestinian prisoners.

They understand the ongoing intensive negotiations to prepare the news for the announcement on the visit of [Ms. Madeleine Albright], the US Secretary of State, who is scheduled to come to the region tomorrow.

Khamenei, today in Mashhad, gave a speech in front of the soldiers and said harsh words against the newspapers and interpreted the economic security in such a way that the problem of the government will remain.

They spent four days in the south of Khorasan, in the cities of Birjand, Torbetjam, Nehbandan, and Qain. The controversy over the issue of violence and the positions of Mr. [Mohammed Taghi] Misbah [Yazdi] continues.