Therefore, based on the following two points:

His Eminence Grand Ayatullah Sayyid Sistani's opinion is: "The sighting of the new crescent in any region establishes the possibility of its sighting--had there been no barriers--in regions located to its west, as long as they are not too distant in latitude."

He has mentioned the following condition in his verdict (see the link)"the standard for the attainment of a sense of assurance should be through the correlation of 'the size and the altitude of the new crescent' in the region where the new crescent is sighted to other regions."

Saturday, August 22nd, 2009 is the first day of the month of Ramadhan for anyone who attains a sense of assurance based on the above criteria.