Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi – July 19, 1983

I put Mr. Yazdi in charge of running the Assembly session and went with the members of the Assembly of Experts to visit the Imam. The Experts and their bodyguards were present. Ayatollah Meshkini spoke briefly, and then the Imam offered some advice. At home, I spent several days writing up my backlogged memoirs. I also wrote a few pages of the article [Narrative of Separation] for the catastrophe of the seventh of Tir and the martyrs of the bombing of the central office of the Islamic Republican Party. Mr. Sheikh Mohammad Hashemian and his family were our guests at noon. He says there is a need for an explicit ruling from the Imam or the Imam's office for the Friday prayer; the central council of the prayer leaders has requested the prayer leaders' credentials of leadership. In the afternoon I went to the Assembly; we had an Experts session. The manner of implementing Article 111 was under discussion.

At night, [Narasimha Rao], the Foreign Minister of India, and his companions came to visit me. There was discussion about further developing [Iran-India] relations. Explaining their own situation, he referred to events such as the massacre of Muslims in Assam as internal matters and a necessary condition of Indian society—as natural occurrences—and he apologized. I did not take it too hard either, and I spoke about striving to develop relations and strengthen the Non-Aligned Movement. Our exports to India are far greater than our imports from it. They want us to buy more from them. I asked Dr. Velayati [the Foreign Minister] about the extradition of the pilot who fled to Turkey; it turned out they had made the request, but had acted weakly. Our pressure on Turkey will probably be effective. I slept at the Assembly that night.