Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi - March 2, 2003

Continuation of the Assembly of Experts and the presentation of Hassan Rouhani's report

Hashemi's account of the request for an arrest warrant from the judge in the AMIA bombing case in Argentina

Ali Larijani's Criticism of Seyyed Mohammad Khatami's Speech at the Conference on Challenges and Prospects for Iran's Development on His Prediction of the Situation of the Elections of the Islamic City and Village Councils

Full text of the diary:

The Assembly of Experts met in the morning and evening. Most of the time was spent listening to the report of the socio-political commission. Dr. [Hassan] Rouhani, [Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council], spoke about globalization and the erosion of governments due to the internationalization of many affairs, and the U.S. exploitation of globalization and the feeling of non-competition.

With the report of the morning meeting, the members of the experts were upset by the exaggeration of the power of the United States, and it was decided that the second part of the report, which was intended for the next session, would be read in the evening session, which was a way to prevent the evil of the United States. In order to reduce the poison of the first report, I spoke for 10 minutes. I described the problems of the United States and the contradictions that hinder the achievement of the colonial goals. Ten delegates also spoke on the same issue. A comprehensive statement was prepared and read for the Assembly of Experts.

The three countries of Kuwait, Bahrain, and Qatar, endorsed the UAE's plan to oust Saddam [Iraqi President Hussein], and Saudi Arabia called it effective, but the Iraqi government called it absurd, dense and nonsense. The Libyan-Saudi conflict continues; [Libyan leader] Gaddafi has announced that he is leaving the Arab League. The Libyan people have demonstrated in front of the Saudi embassy for two days in a row, and Libya has summoned its ambassador. Gaddafi had said at the Arab summit that during the 1991 U.S. invasion of Iraq, King Fahd had told him that Saudi Arabia was willing to work with the devil to suppress Saddam Hussein, which infuriated [Saudi Crown Prince] Amir Abdullah.

OPEC announced that it is not ready to increase its production because of the Iraq war. Iraq also destroyed six Al-Samoud-2 missiles today, but with the continuation of the U.S. belligerent actions and the killing of six Iraqis in last night's bombing of southern Iraq, it threatened to stop the destruction of the missiles.

In Palestine, several Palestinians are still martyred every day. Today, 10 Palestinians were martyred and 90 were wounded. [Osama] bin Laden, [the leader of al-Qaeda], has announced that the arrested person is not Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

In Chechnya, eight people were killed and a number of others were injured in an assassination attempt on the head of state. In Nigeria, 40 people were killed and many more injured as a result of internal conflicts.

The Argentine prosecutor has asked the judge in the AMIA case to arrest a number of Iranian figures, including the Supreme Leader, by Interpol police, and the Iranian Foreign Ministry has threatened Argentina with severing ties.

Mr. [Ali] Larijani, [head of the IRIB], criticized President Khatami's speech at the meeting on the Fourth [Development] Plan and said that he had made harmful remarks in reaction to the defeat of the Reform [Front] in the council elections.