Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi - February 23, 2003

• Ayatollah Khamenei's visit to Sistan and Baluchestan
  Seyyed Mohammad Khatami's Visit to Malaysia
  Hashemi's account of the news and political repercussions of Mohamed ElBaradei's visit to Iran
  Hashemi's Narrative of the Freedom Movement's Statement on the Council Elections
  Hashemi's account of the targeted release of Mohammad Mohsen Sazegara, which later led to the arrest of Qassem Sholeh Saadi, and other cases
  Hashemi's Narration from Sheikh Ahmad Montazeri on Ayatollah Montazeri's Withdrawal from Medical Trip to Tehran
  Hossein Kamali's report and consultations
  Meeting of Seyyed Mohammad Abbaszadegan, the then CEO of Iran Insurance Company
  Participating in the funeral ceremony of the slain Revolutionary Guards
  In the continuation of Sheikh Masih Mohajeri's consultations and consultations, this time he criticized the government and parliament for not paying attention to the opinions and orders of Ayatollah Khamenei.
  Meeting of Seyyed Morteza Bakhtiari, the head of the Prisons Organization at the time, and Dr. Azim Akbarzadeh

Full text of the diary:

[Hans Blix], the chief inspector [of weapons] has warned the Iraqi government that they must destroy the al-Sumud missiles, which have a range of 35 kilometers more than the permissible range [= 150 kilometers], by March 30. [Donald] Rumsfeld, the U.S. Secretary of Defense, has said that the U.S. has about 200,000 troops in the region and tens of thousands in the future, and they are ready to start an invasion of Iraq whenever [George] Bush decides.

Today, eight U.S. military planes entered Turkish military bases, and a number of U.S. military personnel are in Iraq, but Turkey and the U.S. have not agreed on the expected cost for Turkey, as if Turkey has asked for $30 billion in aid. Yesterday and last night, American and British planes bombed six Iraqi defensive positions.

In Saudi Arabia, two or three days ago, a Briton was shot dead by an unknown person, and a governor was killed last week. Saudi scholars issued a fatwa prohibiting the killing of foreigners, and the foreign minister called the U.S. invasion of Iraq an invasion. In Pakistan, three gunmen killed nine Shiites and wounded 10 others in an attack on a Shiite religious center. For a long time, such crimes had been reduced in Pakistan.

Ayatollah Khamenei has traveled to Sistan and Baluchestan province and has been warmly welcomed. Mr. Khatami [the president] has also gone to Malaysia to participate in the summit of non-aligned countries as well as the summit of Islamic countries, and the issue of Iraq and Palestine is one of the important discussions.

The visit of [Mohammed] ElBaradei to Iran and the confirmation that Iran's nuclear activities are peaceful has been widely reflected in the domestic and foreign media, and the United States and Israel have expressed great anger and concern.

The council elections are the most important topic of the day in political circles and the media, and the right-wing movement is not active. The Freedom Movement has also made a list and said that the statements of Engineer [Ezzatollah] Sahabi are related to a section of the national-religious groups and not all of them, and that the Nation Party has boycotted the elections.

Mohsen Sazegara, who was arrested by the Ministry of Intelligence five days ago and went on a hunger strike, has been released. It has embarrassed the 2nd of Khordad who usually attacked the judiciary in such cases. Ahmad, the son of Ayatollah Montazeri, said that his father had gone to Tehran for a medical examination, but they gave up because the security forces wanted to accompany him in a car.
Wafiq Samarrai, the former head of Iraq's intelligence service, admitted in an interview today that the United States and the West provided a lot of intelligence assistance to Iraq against Iran, saying that if it were not for this assistance, the Iranians would have captured Basra.

Mr. [Hossein] Kamali, the former Minister of Labor [and Social Affairs] and the current head of the Grain Organization, came. He gave a report on the performance of the Workers' House and the Islamic Labor Party in the council elections and said that this year's consumption of wheat is more than domestic production, it is not of good quality, and we have a shortage of silos. He had questions about the nuclear industry and the possibility of danger to the United States.

[Mr. Seyyed Mohammad Abbaszadegan], the head of Iran Insurance Company, came and said that they have had good growth this year and that some of the middle managers are worried about the privatization of insurance because they are afraid that the private sector will dismiss them. He criticized the pressure of the supervisory bodies on the managers and considered them to be the cause of the emptying of government offices of quality and good forces and the stagnation of the affairs of the departments. He suggested that the fight against corruption be left to the organs themselves.

We went to the Shahid Motahari Mosque to commemorate the soldiers killed in the Ilyushin plane crash. A large crowd had come. I went back and forth and it took 35 minutes.
Mr. Masih Mohajeri, [Advisor to the President and Editor-in-Chief of the Jomhuri Eslami newspaper] came. He criticized the government and the parliament for not doing anything in the opinion of the Supreme Leader in opposing the participation of the national religious in the council elections. The situation of the nuclear industry and the possible dangers from the West were discussed, and I said, we might have a conflict with the United States on this issue.

In the evening, Mr. [Morteza] Bakhtiari, the head of the Prisons [Organization], along with Dr. Azim Akbarzadeh [a biochemist and faculty member of the Pasteur Institute] and a group of his colleagues came and reported on the production of an anti-morphine vaccine that saves addicts. Dr. Akbarzadeh mentioned my assistance to the exiles in Meshkinshahr before the revolution.