Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi – May 28, 2003

Mr. [Hossein] Karimi, head of one of the branches of the Supreme Court's Diagnostic Division, came. He criticized the state of the judiciary, the illegal actions of the head of the judiciary, the undermining of judicial independence, and the excessive number of criminal offenses in the laws.

Mr. [Manouchehr] Gharavi, former CEO of [Iran Khodro Company], came. He spoke about the paralysis of a number of factories, especially textile factories.

Mr. [Seyyed Mohammad] Sahafi, Deputy Minister of Press at the Ministry of [Culture and] Islamic Guidance, came. He spoke about the problems facing newspapers, their low circulation, and the public's lack of interest in newspapers. He noted that without government support for the supply of paper, film, and zinc plates, they would be unable to continue operating, and that many newspapers have a circulation of fewer than 10,000 copies.

In the afternoon, [Mr. Jean Obeid], the Foreign Minister of Lebanon, came. He is in Iran for the Conference of Foreign Ministers of Islamic Countries. We discussed Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, America, and Israel. He extended an invitation to visit Lebanon.

Mr. Seyyed Abbas Modarresi came from Iraq. He said that the Americans have destroyed the government and state of Iraq, while the Saddamists have destroyed the Iraqi nation. He noted that there are now many deeply rooted figures among the Iraqi people, and therefore the ground for principled political movements is limited. He said the Americans destroyed most government centers and encouraged looting, yet the people, despite all the destruction, feel a relative sense of relief at being freed from the Saddamists — even though everything is shut down, no services are being provided to the people, and even the heavy Iraqi weapons have not yet been collected from the streets and roads. He also had special intelligence, which I passed on to Mr. [Gholamreza] Aghazadeh, [head of the Atomic Energy Organization], and Commander [Qasem] Soleimani, [commander of the Quds Force of the IRGC], inviting them to benefit from it.

He said that the convoy of his brother [Mr. Mohammad-Taqi Modarresi] had fallen into a trap set by the Monafeqin [= Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO)], and they were held captive by them for two or three days and mistreated. He also said that Moqtada al-Sadr has the greatest following among the people.

Today in Iraq, an American helicopter was shot down and four people were killed. In an attack on military personnel, two people were killed and nine were wounded. A woman detonated a bomb strapped to her body among American soldiers, wounding a number of them. In Algeria, another earthquake struck, causing casualties and injuries.

For several days, there had been extensive coverage in global media suggesting that a meeting of senior American officials was to have been held yesterday to discuss how to deal with Iran. The Department of Defense had reportedly recommended a hard-line approach, while the State Department favored a negotiated and diplomatic approach — however, no meeting was held. American spokespeople said they were unaware of any such meeting, and the media frenzy subsided.