Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi – February 25, 1999

I went to my office and did the remaining work. We went to the leader's office. We went with Ayatollah Khamenei to a meeting where experts had gathered. Mr. [Ali] Meshkini, [Chairman of the Assembly of Experts], gave a short speech and led a detailed speech; About the strength of the revolution, on the condition that we are grateful for the blessings of the revolution and asked the experts to use their position to defend the revolution.

We went to Mr. Khatami's [president's] office. Mr. Meshkini gave a short speech and Mr. Khatami gave a report on the country's situation and accepted that they are benefiting from the works of the construction period and we provide many of the needs ourselves, which partially compensates for the problem of lack of foreign exchange.

After prayer and lunch, I went to my office. I did things and used the internet till night. At night, experts were my guests. Messrs. [Qorban Ali] Dorri Najafabadi, [Ali] Fallahian, [Syed Ahmad] Khatami and [Ali Asghar] Masoumi spoke and, mentioning the dangers, asked me to come to the field both to activate the experts and to answer the opponents of the revolution, especially the liberals and nationalists, and to strengthen the secretariat [of the Assembly] of experts.

I also talked about the problems and told the solutions. I came home after dinner. It was not chastity. I wrote the memories and read the news on the computer for three days. Shots were fired at the campaign headquarters of the [Party] of [Construction] Agents, and the new disputes between the supervisory boards and the Ministry of Interior have been resolved in favor of the Ministry of Interior. I am surprised by the crudeness of the right wing in its actions and giving the oppressed means to the rival. With this procedure, they have lost elections in the past.

In the opening ceremony of the meeting [Council of Experts], the authorities of Qom were invited; Only Ayatollah [Hossein] Nouri Hamadani participated. Mr. Meshkini told me that the authorities do not have a good opinion of [the assembly of] experts.