Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi – July 5, 2003

While George Bush, [the US President], was delivering a speech on US Independence Day and speaking of alleged successes, Al Jazeera television broadcast a tape it claims was recorded by Saddam Hussein in Iraq 20 days ago. In it, Saddam justifies his defeat and calls on the people to continue their resistance. The US has offered a $25 million reward for information on Saddam—dead or alive—and $15 million each for the capture of Uday and Qusay, [Saddam's sons].

The Monafeqin [= People's Mujahedin Organization] have stated regarding having about nine million dollars in France that they receive aid from governments and people; including $15 million from Saudi Arabia and one million dollars from Jordan.

The number of Shia martyrs in the Quetta Friday prayers in Pakistan has reached 44, and the number of wounded has reached 65, and [Pervez] Musharraf, [the President of Pakistan], has promised France to follow up on the matter! The UK has asked Iran for help in fighting the remnants of Saddam's loyalists who are attacking the occupying forces. The US has asked [Charles] Taylor, the President of Liberia, to step down to end the civil war, and he has made it conditional on the presence of UN peacekeeping forces.

In the meeting of the [Expediency Discernment Council], we approved five clauses of the general policies supporting investment. At noon, Mssrs. [Abbas Vaez] Tabasi, [Ahmad] Jannati, [Ali Akbar] Nategh [Nouri], [Ghorbanali] Dorri [Najafabadi], and [Mohammad Ali] Movahedi [Kermani] were my guests. We discussed the visit of [Jack] Straw, [the British Foreign Secretary], the parliamentary elections, the twin bills, and the issues within the judiciary.

In the afternoon, Seyyed Abdul Aziz al-Hakim came along with his son Mohsen. Both have come from Iraq. He gave an interesting account of the situation in Iraq, the people and the occupiers, Shias, Sunnis, Kurds, Ba'athists, etc. Most of the attacks carried out against the Americans are by Ba'athist and Salafi Sunnis, while the Shias engage in political opposition. The Sunnis are trying to push the Shias into the phase of military confrontation as well, and to this end, they have met with him and Shia tribal leaders, but have achieved no results. The occupiers are in a dilemma. Their living conditions are not good and they live in constant fear. Out of fear, they treat the people violently. They engage in stealing people's and the government's property. They have no security themselves and cannot establish security in the country either; they are asking the Shias for help and are appointing Shia individuals to official positions in government departments. They do not trust the Badr Brigade. [Paul] Bremer has visited his office twice for negotiations. The morale of the Shias is good and they are not willing to tolerate the Ba'athists. In the [city] of Ramadi, Iraq, an attack on a gathering of policemen who were attending a ceremony after completing their American training course left seven policemen dead and 50 wounded.

In Moscow, as a result of an action by two Chechen women during a [music] festival program, 20 people were killed and 40 were injured. In Karachi, Pakistan, several explosions and closures have occurred.