Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi - April 14, 2002

Hossein Marashi, [a representative of Kerman], and a group of deputies requested that the Expediency Council help them to approve the parliament's resolutions. I said that there is no problem with those cases that do not have a factional aspect.

Qassem Soleimani came. He said that Hezbollah is gradually opening a new front in northern Israel. Their analysis is that they should take advantage of the opportunity to spread the intifada in order to both strengthen the intifada and strike at Israel. 

Full text of the diary:

Engineer [Seyyed Reza] Sajjadi, the head of the Presidential Office of Technology, and his companions, who I established during the construction of the office and were doing good public services, but they have recently been separated from the Presidential Institution. They complained and said that they regretted the time when they used the position of the institution to do important things. They complained to the Ministry of Health about the weakness in pursuing hepatitis B technology and the use of testing kits for infectious diseases, including AIDS, and said that the Westerners used to sell one dollar per kit, and when Iran came to the market and offered 10 cents, they reduced it to 20 cents for dumping.

The representatives of the constructive faction of the parliament came.  Mr. [Hossein] Marashi, [representative of Kerman] and a group of them raised some questions and asked the Expediency Council to help them to approve the decisions of the Parliament.
In the evening, Mr. Farouk Qaddoumi, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Palestinian Authority, and his entourage came. He said that Israel and the United States are determined to occupy the West Bank, and today [U.S. Secretary of State Colin] Powell, in a meeting with [Yasser] Arafat, told him that Israel will stay in the West Bank and that Arafat can go to Gaza. Those who accepted the path of Camp David and Oslo have now realized that they have been deceived, and that Egypt and Jordan, which were the pioneers of reconciliation, have a serious problem today. I confirmed this and said, "Then why has Mr. Arafat condemned the martyrdom operations?! The US Secretary of State visited Arafat today and if Mr. Qaddoumi's report is true, he only threatened and Arafat said that he was ready to be martyred.

Mr. Qassem Soleimani [the commander of the IRGC's Quds Force] came. He said that Hezbollah is gradually opening a new front in northern Israel. Their analysis is that they should take advantage of the opportunity of spreading the intifada to both strengthen the intifada and strike a blow at Israel, and they know that if the intifada fails, it will be Hezbollah's turn. Syria is also in favor of their move, and the statements of [Kamal] Kharrazi, the [Foreign Minister] in Lebanon, are contrary to Hezbollah's policy and have upset them.  Even though the Supreme Leader had told Mr. Kharrazi not to interfere in their affairs and not to impose any demands on them and to let them act according to their own opinions, Hezbollah did not pay attention to Mr. Kamal Kharrazi's words because they knew this. The Syrians also expect that they will not leave Israel easy and are ready to strengthen them further, and new jihadist groups have emerged in Palestine that are more sincere and active than the old mujahideen groups.  

In Afghanistan, there are several daily operations against the Americans and international forces, and 18 American soldiers are in the captivity of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda and want to exchange their prisoners.  

The Venezuelan coup was defeated with the presence of the people on the scene, and the military coup plotters and Pedro Carmona, who had introduced him as the head of state, were arrested. No one supported the coup plotters except the United States. The European Union and 19 Latin American countries condemned it, and Iran condemned it. [President] Chávez went to the presidential palace and gave an important speech. 
I went to Akhtar Hospital to have my dental veneers removed.