Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi – July 7, 1983

At seven in the morning, I went to the Majlis. I read the reports. The Kuwaitis, contrary to our insistence, have given fuel and food to the hijackers, and about half of the passengers have been released and have flown toward Paris with the rest. [The hijackers] are remnants of the Mojahedin. The Kuwaitis have cooperated with them and ignored our request. Before the agenda, I spoke about this and about the cooperation of reactionaries, imperialism, Zionism, and the domestic hypocrites to overshadow the news of “World Quds Day”.  

The plan to separate the Water Division from the Ministry of Energy was under discussion; it took up all our time and was not finished. The Ministry of Energy is opposed. At noon, I had several meetings in my office. The head of the [Islamic Consultative Assembly] Library wanted permission for a female employee to go to France to take a librarianship course.

Word came that France had accepted the hijacked plane at Orly Airport [Paris] and was negotiating with the hijackers in the presence of Massoud Rajavi [leader of the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization]; they are acting contrary to our wishes. In the afternoon, Major Torabi from the [Army] Advisory Office came and gave a report on the Air Force and the replacement of Sa'dinam, its commander, and considered it a kind of factionalism; Sa'dinam himself also came and gave a report; I criticized him for his resignation, which had been accepted, and said that during wartime, how could he have allowed himself to do such a thing. He had done this because of the replacement of the head of Air Force Intelligence Protection by Mr. [Colonel Ali] Sayyad [Shirazi, commander of the Ground Forces].

Mr. Colonel [Abbas] Babaei, commander of the Eighth [Fighter] Base, came and described the flight readiness of the F-14 aircraft and their related missiles as good, and reported on the base's economy measures. He wanted permission to go to the [Fighter] Base in Shiraz and make improvements there in the same way. The condition of the F-14 aircraft is good; they have suffered very little damage in the war.

Mr. [Mohammad] Salamaty, Minister of Agriculture, came. He gave statistics and figures on the progress of the work and future plans; he wanted help to solve the problems. The North Korean ambassador came and wanted us not to participate in the autumn Inter-Parliamentary Conference—which is to be held in South Korea. Mr. Honardust, head of the Iraq Office, came and gave a report on the work and condition of the office and the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq; the office is composed of supporters of Mr. [Mohammad-Baqer] Hakim, the Dawa Party, and the Amal Organization. They are supposed to accept Kurds as well, and he complained about Dr. Hadi and Mr. Shariati. We were guests at Mr. Fakhruddin Hejazi's home for iftar, along with a group of representatives, the president, the prime minister, the foreign minister, and others; he had written poems about me and allusions to others, especially [members of the Society of] Seminary Teachers [of Qom]; he recited them and we laughed.

We held a private meeting with the president, the prime minister, and the foreign minister and made decisions about countering the disruptive actions of France and the Gulf sheikhs regarding the hijacked plane. Late at night, I came home. Faizeh, Yaser, and Mehdi returned from their trip. Yaser had his head bandaged and was in a terrible condition. It turned out that they had been in an accident with a truck on the way, while Faizeh had been driving; God had been very merciful and it had ended well; only Yaser had been injured.