Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi – February 28, 1989

I went to the assembly early in the morning. Most of the contents, reports and news are related to the issue of Salman Rushdie and Imam's ruling. England agreed with the plan of the parliament and announced that it does not want to cut ties with Iran.

Before the start of the meeting, I informed the representatives that Hazrat Imam did not have a specific opinion about the plan to cut ties with England, and I said that it is better for the opponents of the plan not to speak, as it will be exploited by the enemies. I suggested that we modify the plan and make the severance of relations conditional on the non-condemnation of Salman Rushdie's book by the UK, and practically the same thing happened with the amendment proposal of the representatives. The general plan was approved by almost all representatives. [Mr. Ali Akbar Velayati] the foreign minister did not oppose the plan either; Although he was against it, he agreed.

I went to my office at eleven o'clock and did office work until the evening. In the afternoon, Dr. Velayati said on the phone that England summoned our minister to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and said that he does not want to sever relations with Iran, and asked us to tell how they can comply with the request of the parliament so that relations are not severed. I said that he should tell them the provisions of the resolution and that they should make a statement in which the demands are against the content of the Satanic Verses book and against the recent insulting actions towards the Islamic world and the Islamic Republic of Iran.

In the evening, the country's judo sports official came and asked for more funds to buy a judo mat. In the evening, I participated in the meeting of the Expediency Council. The discussion was about government penalties for violating distribution regulations. I arrived home late. I prepared the luggage for tomorrow's trip and slept.