Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi – August 17, 1988

I reached the parliament at half past nine in the morning. I did the rest of the work yesterday. In the evening, the Prime Minister and civilian members of the General Staff came to discuss their work problems. They mainly complained about the IRGC and they claim that the IRGC does not give the necessary importance to the headquarters, and they also complained about me that I do not pay attention to the role of the headquarters in relation to the troops. For example, giving promotions to the army men and commanding the corps and appointing Mr. Shamkhani as the deputy commander of the corps, and generally underestimating the headquarters. Each case was negotiated. Finally, they were satisfied and it was agreed that the rights and duties of the headquarters should be carried out, and they would also carry out the tasks related to the forces through the command.

On the first night, Mr. Shamkhani and the operations headquarters of the United Nations Security Forces Administration came to monitor the ceasefire. They reported the work done and the future plan. I reminded Mr. Shamkhani about the necessity of IRGC cooperation with the General Staff.

Near Maghrib, Mr. [Hussain [Sheikh al-Islam] informed that the plane carrying "Zia-ul-Haq" [President of Pakistan] and his companions were shot down and all of them were killed. The American ambassador was also on the plane. Mr. Velayati informed that we have prepared a plane for the foreign minister of Pakistan who came to Iran today to return to Pakistan and he asked me to send a message of condolence to "Ghulam Ishaq Khan", the president of the Senate, who has been in charge of Pakistan's affairs in place of Ziaul Haq according to the regulations.