Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi – February 19, 1991

Early in the morning, we went to visit military industries with Mohsen and Yaser. [Mr. Akbar Turkan], the Minister of Defense came and got in my car from home to give an explanation on the way. We crossed the special highway that the Ministry of Defense is constructing between Pasdaran and Parchin military industries; It is a good road.

We visited Shahid Hemet missile industries. From North Korea, we have bought the Scud-BC missile manufacturing technology. Busy assembling in the form of an S. who They are D and then C. who After that, the construction becomes independent. We used to make copies ourselves, which we have used well.

The first Scud-B missile was ready. We visited the launcher that we built to launch them; It was interesting. We went to Sayad military complex, next to Damavand road; It is a huge complex. It has several military and non-military products. It is just opening. The visit lasted until noon. We canceled the rest of the visit schedule due to the meeting with the Iraqi delegation.

We returned to the office by helicopter. Mr. Tariq Aziz, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Iraq and the accompanying delegation came to meet; They have returned from Moscow. He explained the reasons for Iraq's recent statement, the trip to the Soviet Union, negotiations with Gorbachev, Iraq's future plan, war issues and the situation in Iraq. He apologized in a way that they gave a favorable answer to the Russians and not to us, but in our opinion, they did the right thing, because it is not possible for us to negotiate with America to satisfy Iraq's demands, and it is leverage.

We have no pressure.

We also had a private meeting. We said clearly that in our opinion Iraq will fail. If you intend to surrender one day, it's better to do it sooner so that all this corruption and destruction does not happen. Finally, he did not give a clear answer whether they will finally accept it or not. But for now, they are not ready to leave Kuwait unconditionally.

Gorbachev's message to Saddam is to announce that they will leave Kuwait unconditionally. We also gave the same message. They decided to give us the answer. The fuel problem in Iraq is very serious and they want our help.

In the evening, the representatives of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps came and I spoke for them. [Mr. Sahibzada Yaqub Khan] the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan came. He is going to Cairo to participate in the meeting of several Islamic countries. He consulted and asked for an opinion. I said that they should try to do something to encourage the departure of Iraq. The Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution had a meeting.

Today, I had a telephone conversation with [Mr. Turgut Özal], the president of Türkiye, and asked him to tell the multinationals to give a positive answer to this Iraqi issue; He insisted a lot to find out what is the real position of Iraq and the Soviet Union. [Mr. Hafez Assad], the president of Syria, also called and sought information about the real position of Iraq; I gave them good information. At night, I stayed in my office to do the backlog.