Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi - March 12, 2003

Participation in the Death Anniversary of Seyyed Ahmad Khomeini

Hashemi's account of the complete release of Iraqi prisoners and Iranian prisoners from Iraq

Full text of the diary:

I worked in the office of the palace until the evening. I went to the Imam's shrine to attend the eighth anniversary of the death of Haj Seyyed Ahmad Khomeini. Effat went to Qom to visit relatives. Hassan and Ali, the children of Faezeh and Fati, want to establish a sherbet prayer station for the mourners tomorrow [Ashura]. They asked me to be a partner, and I accepted.

The disagreement between a section of Europeans and the United States over the issue of Iraq has intensified, with the United States and Britain warning France and Russia against using their veto power and threatening. The British government has been threatened with the removal of many members of the [ruling] party and its representatives, and it seems that 80% of the British people are against the participation of this country in the war, without the approval of the Security Council. For this reason, [Prime Minister] Blair has launched a new effort to get the approval of the [UN Security Council] and has made a new proposal for this purpose, and he has asked Iraq to take six steps to ensure disarmament, and he knows that Iraq will take six steps to ensure that it is disarmed.
It will not accept the conditions, and if it is approved by the Security Council, it will pave the way for military action, such as Saddam's frank speech and declaration of violation, the destruction of all Al-Sumud missiles, the declaration of the stockpile of chemical and microbial weapons, the explanation of how they were destroyed, the transfer of 30 Iraqi scientists abroad for interrogation, and the announcement of the stockpile of unmanned aircraft and their factories.

The U.S. has called up 200,000 reservists. In Turkey, the people of Iskenderun have surrounded the port where U.S. military equipment is being unloaded and clashed with police, and reporters have reported that U.S. troops in Kuwait are exhausted.

Iran has announced that all Iraqi prisoners and Iranian prisoners in Iraq will be released this week. The Iraqi Opposition Leadership Council in Erbil has identified the members of the 14 committees, but [Iyad] Allawi [Secretary General of the National Accord Movement] and Adnan Pachechi, [former Iraqi Foreign Minister], have not attended the meeting and have not yet accepted their membership. Mr. Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah [the leader of the Lebanese Hezbollah movement] has announced that if the United States invades Iraq, the American military will be attacked as a martyrdom.

Last night and today in Tehran and many parts of the country, we had snow and rain.