Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi - March 7, 2003

Expediency Council Begins Investigation into Dispute Resolution between Parliament and Guardian Council

Sheikh Ebrahim Amini's Complaints about the Election of Seyyed Ahmad Khatami in Place of Seyyed Hassan Taheri Khorramabadi as the Administrator of the Assembly of Experts and the Changes in the Statement of the Experts in Favor of the Guardian Council

Interview with Mohammad Reza Damroudi and Mohammad Jafar Behdad

Full text of the diary:

The United States, which could not get the necessary votes to pass its second resolution against Iraq, proposed a 10-day deadline with Britain and demanded that at the end of the deadline, if Iraq did not surrender for complete disarmament, the use of force would be adopted, but France, Russia, China, and Germany said that as long as the inspectors had hope for progress, no new resolution should be issued.

 [U.S. President] Bush said that there is no need for a new resolution for military action against Iraq, because Iraq has violated Resolution 1441 by not taking immediate, explicit and transparent action, and Iraq said today that it has destroyed 36 of the 120 Al-Sumud-2 missiles so far. It has been reported that Saddam is also willing to step down on the condition that he lives with his relatives in one of the palaces in Iraq and that the United Nations guarantees that he will not be attacked. The Speaker of the Turkish Parliament expressed concern over the reports of the entry of US military equipment into Turkish territory and said that it should be followed.

In the extraordinary session of the Expediency Council, the budget for the year 2003 was discussed. The Guardian Council has eight objections to it, 30 objections, 22 of which have been amended by the parliament and eight have been sent to the assembly. It is mainly related to foreign financial sources [finance]. The discussion remained incomplete and was postponed until tomorrow.

Mr. Ebrahim Amini, [the second vice chairman and] the head of the secretariat of the Assembly of Experts, came. He expressed his dissatisfaction with the fact that Mr. Ahmad Khatami had been elected in place of Mr. [Seyyed Hassan] Taheri Khorramabadi [as the head of the Assembly of Experts's presiding board] and that the changes in the draft statement of the Assembly of Experts had been made in favor of the Guardian Council.

In the evening, I had an interview with [Mr. Mohammad Reza Damroudi and Mr. Mohammad Jafar Behdad of Janbaz magazine] about veterans and assassinations, including myself [by the Forghan Group on May 25, 1980].

In the evening, Tayyibeh's sister came, and the meeting was renewed. He ate dinner with us and left.