Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi – July 15, 2003

Mr. [Habibollah] Mohammadian, the imam of Tehran's Abuzar Mosque and the former Friday Prayer leader of Zahedan, came to see me. He requested assistance in building a school adjacent to his mosque and said that among religious scholars and revolutionaries there is a strong belief that no one other than me is capable of putting the country's affairs in order. I replied that the country is not suffering from a lack of qualified people and that confidence should be placed in someone else for the next presidency.

One of the former managers of the Missile Group of the Defense Industries Organization also visited. He gave a report on the programs and cooperation involved in developing a long-range missile under the cover of the satellite launch program, and explained that the project had been halted due to opposition from the General Staff, which also led to his removal. He said that the newly tested missile was an improved version of the Shahab missile with a range of 1,500 kilometers. Israel and the United States have created considerable uproar over it. He now works at the Ministry of Petroleum, where he oversees turbine manufacturing and other industries, and said that he is satisfied with his current position and considers it strategically important.

Mr. [Ali] Vakili, adviser to the Minister of Petroleum and head of the Petroleum Industry Research Institute, came and reported that research on the project to produce gasoline, diesel fuel, and other petroleum products from natural gas had been completed. He also said that during Mr. Hajiyev's trip to Russia, he had pursued the idea of establishing a club of committed and Muslim figures from around the world to promote peace and justice. Hajiyev had also complained that Iran carries out its profitable projects with Western countries while assigning the difficult and problematic ones to Russia.

Later in the afternoon, Mr. Mohseni, Deputy for Economic Affairs at the Ministry of Intelligence, came and reported on their new policy for pursuing cases of economic corruption, explaining that they intended to move away from the strict approach they had previously adopted.

In the evening, I was a guest of the Leader. He expressed dissatisfaction with the participation of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq in the Iraqi Governing Council. He said that he had conveyed this opinion to them in response to Sayyid Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, believing that the United States intended, through this council, to neutralize both Iraqi public pressure and international pressure without granting the council any real authority, while shifting the Iraqi people's demands from itself onto the council.

He also said that another meeting would be held regarding the 93+2 Additional Protocol. The negotiating team had recommended signing it, but he himself was not in favor. He added that the editorial published by Kayhan advocating withdrawal from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) had been written without his knowledge.

He further stated that proposals from various quarters had been reaching him urging assistance in securing the passage of the "Twin Bills" (the amendment to the parliamentary election law and the bill defining the limits and authorities of the President), as well as granting greater powers to the President and even amending the Constitution. He believed that all of these proposals originated from a single center. Among those mentioned were Engineer Mir-Hossein Mousavi, Mohammad Baqerian, Seyyed Mohammad Khatami, and others. We also discussed the upcoming parliamentary elections, the prosecution of those responsible for the unrest, and the management of the Islamic Propagation Office in Qom.

The United States was preparing for large-scale arrests of Ba'ath Party members. As one of its first actions, the Iraqi Governing Council designated the day of Saddam Hussein's downfall as Iraq's National Day and approved the establishment of a tribunal to prosecute senior Ba'ath officials. Major military operations were carried out in several Iraqi cities, including Baghdad, Mosul, Ramadi, Baqubah, and Fallujah. Paul Bremer, the head of the Coalition Provisional Authority, stated that the Iraqi people would determine how long American forces should remain in the country.

At the same time, it was announced that the return of thousands of U.S. Army infantry personnel who had been scheduled to go back to the United States had been postponed. The United States was also reorganizing the deployment of 900,000 reserve personnel for the continuation of the war on terrorism. News reports stated that American soldiers in Iraq had prepared a petition to Congress requesting their return home. In Afghanistan, a car bomb targeting Americans near the U.S. Embassy in Kabul wounded several people, and an attack on a military outpost resulted in the deaths of several Afghan soldiers.