Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi – May 31, 1983

Before the public session, Dr. [Mohsen] Nourbakhsh, the head of the Central Bank, came and expressed concern about Article 3 of the [interest-free] Banking Operations Bill, which had undergone a major change in the commission. He said that two thousand billion rials in demand deposits that currently earn interest would, under the commission's decision, be deprived of interest in the future, which might cause them to [withdraw the money] from the banks and add it to idle capital. In the public session, the same bill was discussed, and Article 3 led to lengthy debates because of this disagreement between the government and the commission, and finally the commission's view was approved.

At noon, the Sharia judge of the guild court came and provided explanations about his actions concerning Mr. [Ali Akbar] Pourostad and others. I advised him to keep the court's work away from the political sphere. In the afternoon, Mr. Mohammadzadeh came and proposed establishing a library of Islamic texts in London and suggested using someone who had in the past had connections with some of the leaders of the Resistance Council in Paris.

I attended the meeting of the Hezbollah members of parliament. The discussion was open, and I responded to their remarks, in which they had raised objections to the way the parliament and government were being run and dealt with, and I warned them against extremism and unwarranted criticism. Captain [Esfandiar] Hosseini, [commander of] the Navy, came to see me; he gave a report on his work and his problems.

The family of Martyr Chamran came and consulted about holding the anniversary ceremony for him. Mr. Ghaffari, the publisher of Martyr Motahari's books, came and was seeking a solution regarding some passages on Martyr Motahari's economic views in a newly published book that had been banned by the Imam at the request of the Society of Seminary Teachers [of Qom]. It was decided that I would follow up. I came home late. Today, two of our ships in Khormusa were hit and damaged by Iraqi missiles, and several points were attacked from the air, and an Iraqi aircraft crashed.