Akbar Hashemi's Memoirs - January 28, 2003

Part of the reports from the [UN weapons] inspectors to the Security Council regarding Iraq has been published, stating that out of approximately 19,000 chemical bombs Iraq produced, it used about 13,000 against Iran... / It was announced that the house arrest of Ayatollah Montazeri has been lifted.

Full diary text: Part of the reports from the [UN weapons] inspectors to the Security Council regarding Iraq has been published, stating that out of approximately 19,000 chemical bombs Iraq produced, it used about 13,000 against Iran, and the fate of the rest is unknown. Furthermore, there is no news regarding the fate of several tons of anthrax microbes produced with Western assistance for use against Iran. Additionally, Iraq recently imported 300 long-range rocket engines, with no clear reason for the import or their current location, and it is not cooperating regarding interviews with scientists.

Following this report, the U.S. and British governments have again emphasized that one cannot hope for Iraq's cooperation. [King Abdullah II], the King of Jordan, also stated that there is no hope for a political solution in Iraq. Many countries around the world have insistently called on Iraq to cooperate honestly with the inspectors. Tariq Aziz, [the Deputy Prime Minister], said that Iraq is prepared to have better cooperation from now on. Anti-war demonstrations have intensified in many countries, Western stock market values have plummeted, and gold has become more expensive.

Today in Palestine, Israel engaged in large-scale killings and destruction. In Afghanistan, a large group of armed individuals engaged in direct conflict with U.S. and Afghan government forces; so far, there is talk of 14 Americans killed and dozens of other soldiers wounded. Even now—at 10:00 PM—the clashes continue near the Pakistan border, and U.S. aircraft are bombing the area.

Mr. [Morteza] Ghorbani, head of the Veterans' Cooperative, came and said that because the cooperative supported Mr. [Ali] Shamkhani, [the Minister of Defense], in the presidential election, the government has cut off its aid to the cooperative. Strangely, the IRGC Intelligence Protection has also notified IRGC commanders not to cooperate with the cooperative. He said he is in the process of signing a contract to take over the "Haram to Haram" project [connecting the shrines] in Qom and Jamkaran. He claimed he met a person in Jamkaran who resembles Imam Khomeini and is an employee of the Jamkaran telecommunications office. This person reportedly said that the Imam of the Age [the Mahdi] approves of this contract and provided him with supernatural information.

The managers of the Neka Choob Mazandaran Company came. They said the company has seven wood and wood products factories with 2,200 workers and 100,000 hectares of forest. They stated that the Reconstruction Era was their best period of activity, but in recent years, things have weakened, work has stagnated, and the right to harvest from the forest has been halved. They sought assistance to secure foreign currency for an MDF production plant project—of which we currently import 50,000 tons. They read an article about my services during the periods of struggle, the revolution, defense, reconstruction, and today. They said the farmers of the Sari plain are praying for you due to the construction of the important Shahid Rajaee Dam, which brought stability and agricultural development and increased their land value sixfold.

Mr. Ali-Mohammad Besharati, [former Minister of Interior], came; he presented the country's problems and predicted a worsening situation given the government's performance and disagreements over solutions, asking for my opinion. He brought a book he has written about the history of the Constitutional [Revolution].

In the afternoon, I had an interview with [Messrs. Mehdi Pourhossein, Hossein Javan Arasteh, Ahmad Heidari, and Seyed Zia Mortazavi], officials of the "Hokoumat-e Eslami" (Islamic Government) magazine of the Assembly of Experts, regarding the impact of the attraction of Karbala.

It was announced that the house arrest of Ayatollah Montazeri has been lifted. (January 28, 2003)