Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi - March 10, 2003

The story of the Islamic Republic's ambassador to Baku and former commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Committee of Tehran about the efforts of a group in the Ministry of Intelligence to cool relations between Iran and Azerbaijan
Turkmenistan President Safarmurat Niyazov meets with Hashemi
The election of Sheikh Ghorbanali Dorri Najafabadi based on the proposal of Seyyed Mohammad Khatami to resolve the dispute in the budget of the Guardian Council
Meeting of Mohammad Reza Aref, Mohammad Sattarifar, Majid Ansari in connection with the budget of the Guardian Council
Full text of the diary:

At last night's meeting of the Security Council, the U.S. realized that it did not have enough votes to pass the resolution [to use force to disarm Iraq] and postponed the vote. The leaders of Germany, France and China have made it clear that they oppose the proposal to set a deadline for Iraq. Tonight, the Council is holding an open session, at the request of the Non-Aligned Countries.
Mr. [Ahad] Qazaei, Iran's ambassador to Baku, came and said that a group in the Ministry of Intelligence had caused the cooling of relations between Iran and Azerbaijan.

Mr. [Safarmurad] Niyazov, the President of Turkmenistan, came with the majority of his cabinet. "The people and government of Turkmenistan consider you the founder of privileged relations and will never forget the help you gave us in the time of our acute food problems by sending flour generously," he said.
In a private conversation, he gave a comprehensive explanation of the assassination attempt, which was directed by [Boris] Sheikh Muradov, [former foreign minister], and said that Russia, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan and perhaps the United States were aware of and cooperated. Their weapons were sent by Azerbaijan by an Iranian truck through Iran with the trick of the driver, and Sheikh Muradov, while he was in the Uzbek embassy, was negotiating with the American ambassador by phone.

In the evening, Mr. Igor Ivanov, the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs, arrived. He gave a full explanation of the disagreements in the Security Council over the issue of Iraq, saying that the United States is seeking to renew its colonial domination in the region, and that the major countries of the West, China and Russia are opposed and see their interests in danger.

In last night's meeting of the Security Council, it became clear that the United States could not get the necessary nine votes, because five countries – Russia, Germany, France, China and Syria – had declared their opposition and three countries had said they had abstained, and the majority opposed the deadline set by the United States, Britain, and Spain, but believed that the United States would go to war without the Council's permission, and it was not clear what would happen.

He denied the news that Russia had offered to abdicate to Saddam [Iraqi President Hussein] and said, "Mr. [Yevgeny] Primakov, [Putin's envoy], went to Iraq to find out what Baghdad's policy was and it turned out that it had a resistance base. He said, "The Russian government and people consider you to be the founder of the development of relations, and the same documents that you and [Mikhail] Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union, signed, are still the focus of cooperation."

Mr. Khatami, [the President], asked us to appoint a representative to be an expert and to resolve the differences in the budget of the Guardian Council, and I appointed Mr. Dori [Najafabadi], but they did not reach any result.

In the evening, Messrs. [Mohammadreza] Aref, [First Vice President], [Mohammad] Sattarifar, [Head of the Management and Planning Organization], and Majid Ansari, [Head of the Planning and Budget Commission] came. They are not satisfied with the Expediency Council's approval of the Guardian Council's budget, and I emphasized that they should agree with Mr. Dorri's opinion.