Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi – April 24, 1999

I was at home. I spent my time exercising, walking in the yard, and studying. The children were all together at noon, and our informal discussions focused mainly on the impeachment of Mr. [Ataollah] Mohajerani and the continuing issue of the suspension of the Zan newspaper. Mr. Seyyed Hassan Taheri [Khorramabadi], who had recently been appointed as temporary Friday Prayer leader of Tehran because of Mr. [Mohammad] Emami-Kashani’s illness and to provide greater variety, led Friday prayers for the first time. There was nothing particularly noteworthy to make his first sermons interesting. He made no claims, and no expectations had been placed on him.

In the international news, the visit of Mr. [Viktor] Chernomyrdin, as Mr. [Boris] Yeltsin’s special envoy, to Belgrade to seek a political solution to Kosovo was significant. After lengthy negotiations with Mr. [Slobodan] Milošević, [President of Yugoslavia], he announced that Yugoslavia would accept the presence of United Nations forces in Kosovo to maintain the security of the people and implement autonomy. If this is genuine, it could provide a solution. This flexibility, however, came after NATO forces had destroyed the headquarters of the ruling Socialist Party and Milošević’s residence and living quarters over the past two days. At the same time, in line with Chernomyrdin’s announcement, the United States and Britain also said that there was no need to deploy ground forces to Kosovo and rejected Milošević’s proposal, although Mr. Kofi Annan, [UN Secretary-General], had accepted it.

The deadline for the unilateral declaration of an independent Palestinian state, with Jerusalem as its capital, is approaching, and [Yasser] Arafat, [leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization, PLO], continues to say that he will make the declaration, while Israel is threatening that, if the declaration is made, the peace process will be halted. Considerable pressure is being brought to bear on Arafat to postpone it until after the Israeli elections.

Effat went to the memorial ceremony marking the anniversary of Martyr [Ali] Qoddusi’s death. When she returned, she said that at the gathering some of the women had expressed strong sympathy for the issue of the Zan newspaper and Faezeh, saying that people believed the whole affair had been staged and the case fabricated for factional purposes.