Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi – February 25, 1987

I came to the parliament at nine o'clock in the morning. I read the reports until ten o'clock. Last night, our forces made progress in Shalamcheh. The morale of Iraqis has weakened. The most important issue in the world is the events in Beirut, and the West is hoping for Hezbollah's confrontation with Syria and the worsening of Iran-Syria relations. The killing of 22 Lebanese Shiites by Syrian soldiers in the west of Beirut has raised the possibility of a conflict.

The IRGC missile group came. They reported and I gave encouraging words to them. Mr. [Abbas Ali] Zali, Minister of Agriculture, came. He complained about the harassment of some representatives and gave evidence that they were biased and gave explanations about fisheries and... and was worried about the merger of the Ministries of Jihad, Construction and Agriculture, which was recently approved by the government.

[Colonel Jalali] Minister of Defense came. He complained about the division of the war budget in the plan and budget commission. He underestimated the role of the army. I said that the war budget is supposed to be divided according to the participation in the war.

Mr. [Abdul Hossein] Saveh, the representative of Kerman, came. He spoke about the lack of security in Kerman due to some recent anti-revolutionary evils and complained to the Minister of Education and the [Kerman] Governorate.

Mr. Ishaq Madani, the representative of Sunnis, came. He suggested that they appoint an imam as a liaison with the Sunnis, and he wanted to be that liaison, but I said that I don't have the time. It was decided that they should write for the service of the Imam.

In the evening, the board of the parliament had a meeting. Mr. [Abdullah] Nouri and Mr. Rohani came in the first night. The distribution of the war budget was negotiated. We confirmed the same theory of the commission; Mr. Rouhani is not satisfied.

Mr. Mahdinejad came. He explained his talks with [Albert] Hakim in Turkey, regarding cooperation to repair American weapons and his suggestions to create a better environment in America in connection with the Islamic revolution. It was decided to continue the negotiation with Dr. Rouhani.

The night of the meeting of the heads of forces was in the president's office. I explained about the war. Mr. Rezaei also informed from the front that the operation continues tonight and we are advancing well from the west of the Jassim River. The issue of Syria and the martyrdom of 24 Hezbollah members at the hands of Syrian soldiers and the possibility of Syrians entering South Beirut and fighting with Hezbollah were also discussed. We decided to warn the Syrian government not to enter the area south of Beirut.

We advised engineer Mousavi not to rush the merger of the two ministries of agriculture and Jihadism and to do full expertise. I arrived home late.