Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi – October 5, 1982

Early in the morning I went to Parliament. We had a public session. Mr. [Ali] Movahedi Saveji, in his speech before the agenda, attacked the Freedom Movement and Engineer [Mehdi] Bazargan over an open letter they had recently written to me, in which they denied all the achievements of the Revolution and made accusations. A group of hardliners in Parliament also created an uproar, the majority of the representatives joined them, and they walked out. I went and calmed them down and brought them back into the chamber. It was decided that we would address the matter in the afternoon. Several bills were approved or rejected. At noon I handled work in my office, and after prayers and a rest, we held a meeting of the Board of Directors. We determined next week's agenda.

Then a meeting of the Hezbollah members was held, and the Freedom Movement was discussed. The debate became very heated, and finally I spoke and said that they had fundamental ideological differences with the Imam's line, and that we should not fall into this trap. They wanted to present themselves as the focal point of the opposition and wanted the debate to spill over onto Parliament's podium. America also imagined that they could become an alternative to the Imam's line. We should act indirectly, and at the same time we must tolerate the opposition and the minority. I condemned the gentlemen's actions that morning, and it proved effective.

I worked in my office until eight o'clock. Then a consultative meeting of the leaders was held in Mr. Khamenei's office. We discussed the conditions for peace and how Dr. Velayati should conduct himself at the United Nations. These days, discussions of a ceasefire and peace are intense in international circles, and we must have a clear and definite position. The Prime Minister said that the foreign exchange reserves were steadily increasing, and he was pleased. A letter had arrived from the Association of Iranian Engineers Living Abroad, requesting that conditions be created for the return of Iranian specialists and saying that they were unhappy about not being in Iran. It was decided that we would take action. The commander of the Hamzeh base came and spoke about the progress in the fight against Kurdish insurgents and promised future successes. They have done a great deal of work.