Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani – April 19, 2003

Mr. [Mohsen] Nabawi, our new ambassador in Austria, came for consultation and had suggestions about the representative of the leadership in Austria and removing the veil from the leader's neck and said, the managers of the country regret the management situation during your presidency.  He is a relative of the family of Ayatollah Haj Seyyed Abdul Hadi Shirazi.  Messrs. [Mansour] Mirzakochki, [representative of Borujen] and [Mustafa] Hashemitaba, [Chairman of the National Olympic Committee] also came.  They had no important work.  In the evening, I continued the interview with Mr. [Abbas] Suleimanin, [Director of the Iranian History Studies and Compilation Office].  At the same time, he criticized IRNA [Islamic Republic] news agency. 

The American forces in Baghdad were replaced by the American 103rd Army.  Abu Dhabi TV has published a film that Saddam [Hussein], on the day when his statue was being taken down, appeared among the people in Baghdad's Azimieh Street, and rumors about the arrest of Uday, Saddam's son, have also been published. 
Mr. Abdulaziz Hakim was widely welcomed by the people in Al-Amara city and the office of the Supreme Assembly was opened in Najaf and in Basra, the oil pipe of the Iraqi National Oil Company exploded with a huge fire. 
The foreign ministers of Iraq's neighboring countries, in Riyadh, in their final statement, demanded the withdrawal of American and British troops from Iraq, the handing over of Iraqi affairs to the United Nations, and the US refraining from seizing Iraqi property, as well as refraining from threatening Syria.  It was announced that the Minister of Finance and the Minister of State of Iraq have been arrested with the help of the Iraqi police who are gradually starting to work.
It has been reported in the news that about 300 [members] of the Mojahedin [People's Mojahedin Organization], who are planning to go to Jordan, including Marziyeh, the singer of Zaman Taghut, were turned away from behind the border.  A group of Iranians who were in Iraqi prisons have been rescued and are going to Iran.
It was announced that the body of the person who went missing last Wednesday during the heavy rain in Tehran and probably fell into the streams has not been found yet.  It is predicted that we will have a lot of rain and flood in the next few days.  The amount of water of the Hirmand river that reaches Zabul has reached the limit of 300 cubic meters per second and floods have also caused casualties in Afghanistan. 
An American helicopter was targeted in Pakistan and seven were injured.