Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi – June 11, 2003

A group of members of the Islamic Coalition Party came on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of its founding and also on the eve of the 40th anniversary of the martyrdom of the group including [Mohammad] Bokharaei. Mr. [Habibollah] Asgarowladi, the Secretary-General of the Islamic Coalition Party, gave a report and recounted an interesting memory that I had not heard before. He said, on the night they were going to execute the four individuals—[Sadegh] Amani, [Mohammad] Bokharaei, [Reza] Saffar Harandi, and [Morteza] Niknejad—the leaders of the Coalition Party, who were in prison, were taken to the firing range to say goodbye. There, the four of them had their hands on each other's shoulders and were cheerful. They said, "The regime thinks it has given us the harshest punishment, but it is mistaken; because it has given us the easiest verdict, and the hardest is for you who remain in prison and have to deal with this oppression." I also spoke about this spirit of martyrdom-seeking, which stems from faith in God, and introduced the faithful as invincible.

Mr. Seyed Mohammad Sadegh al-Hosseini, from the Dialogue Among Civilizations center, came. He had returned from a trip to Arab countries and said that most of them expect you to travel to their country. He requested an interview with Al Jazeera.

Mr. [Gholamreza] Shafei, our ambassador to Moscow, came. He said that regarding the 20 percent share of the Caspian Sea, we should not be strict, and said that we must accept the return of nuclear fuel waste to Russia. I said it is unlikely we will accept. He said that [Vladimir] Putin, the President of Russia, will not grant an appointment to Mr. [Mehdi] Karroubi, the Speaker of the Parliament, and for that reason, he is not making the trip.

In the afternoon, Messrs. [Mohammad] Honardoost, the Deputy for Communications and International Affairs of the IRIB, and [Mohammad Hossein] Taromi, the Secretary of the International Conference on the August 19, 1953 Coup, and others came. They requested that I open the August 19 Congress; I did not promise. They brought publications from the Institute for Contemporary Iranian History.

Last night, Ayatollah Khamenei asked me to agree to lead the Friday prayers every other week due to the illness and old age of Messrs. [Ahmad] Jannati, [Mohammad] Yazdi, and [Mohammad] Emami-Kashani. I said it is a problematic commitment and we must find someone else. We discussed several individuals; we did not reach a conclusion. He believes that now that we have moved the Friday prayers to the Tehran Prayer Grounds, we should not hand over the prayer location at the University of Tehran, and that prayers should occasionally be held there.

In Iraq, protests against the invaders and attacks on them continue. [Paul] Bremer, [Colin] Powell, the US Secretary of State, and [Donald] Rumsfeld, the US Secretary of Defense, have said that Iran is interfering in Iraqi affairs and have issued warnings. Bremer, the Executive Director of the Coalition Provisional Authority, has said that they might remain in Iraq for years, and in some cases, they have also clashed with Kurdish parties.

Today in West Jerusalem, in a martyrdom operation, 16 Zionists were killed and 70 wounded. Israel immediately attacked Gaza with missiles and bombs, killing seven people and wounding a number of others. Previously, Mr. Ahmed Yassin, the leader of Hamas, had said that in response to the attack on Mr. [Abdel Aziz] Rantisi, the deputy leader of Hamas, Israel should await our response.