Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi - May 6, 2002

I talked about the personality of women in Islam and the revolution and gave awards to several people

Mousavian said that the government could not take advantage of the good resolution of the Supreme Security Council on the Caspian Sea, and Niazov had told Khatami that if they agreed to 18.5 percent, the work could be done at the summit. Mr. Khatami did not dare to sign because of the atmosphere of the parliament and the media that day. 

Full text of the diary:

To inaugurate the memorial of the martyred women of Tehran, we went to the Shahid Shiroudi Stadium. They had a good program, with songs, plays, speeches, and reports by General [Seyyed Mohammad] Hejazi, [commander of the Basij Resistance Force], and my speech.  There are about 500 female martyrs in Tehran province who were martyred in bombings, assassinations, fronts, Mecca, and before the revolution. We have about 5,000 female martyrs in the whole country. I talked about the personality of women in Islam and the revolution and gave several awards. Chastity was also with me.

General [Ali Asghar] Gorjizadeh, the head of the memorial headquarters, said that he had been a prisoner in Iraq for about two and a half years and had been tortured a lot. He was the chief of staff of the Sixth Corps [the IRGC Ground Forces] and was with General Ali Hashemi, the commander of the Sixth Corps, on Majnoon Island. As they retreated, their car was attacked by Iraqi helicopters. They disembark and move towards the border, he is captured and Hashemi is still missing.  He had been in Basra prison for a while, and when he was identified, he was transferred to al-Rashid prison in Baghdad. He was in the same solitary cell where Martyr [Mohammad Jawad] had been in the past and had seen some Kuwaiti prisoners there. The marks of torture are still present on his body.

In the evening, Mr. [Seyyed Hossein] Mousavian, [Deputy Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council] came. He said that the government could not take advantage of the good decision of the Supreme Security Council on the Caspian Sea because they had allowed about 20 percent to be compromised. Mr. [Safar Murad] Niazov, [President of Turkmenistan], had told Mr. [Seyyed Mohammad] Khatami that if they agreed to 18.5 percent, it would be possible to finish the work at the summit conference. Mr. Khatami [the President] did not dare to sign because of the atmosphere of the parliament and the media that day. He proposed to enter into negotiations with Europe on weapons of mass destruction, terrorism, and peace in the Middle East, in order to put a distance between Europe and the United States. He had some suggestions about the construction projects on Kish Island that were proposed by Mr. [Hossein] Sabet and the German investor group [= Hansa Chemical Company]. Mr. Sabet asks for loans from Iranian banks.  

The U.S. and Israel have been propagating the removal of [Yasser] Arafat, and peace without Arafat. Some believe that these statements are intended to strengthen Arafat's position among the Mujahideen, with whom they are unlikely to reach a compromise. Israel attacks Palestinian towns and villages on a daily basis, arresting a number of people, and there are daily casualties and martyrdom operations are almost stopped.  

In France, [Jacques] Chirac defeated [Jean-Marie] Le Pen, the leader of the National Front, by a majority of 80 percent. [Lionel] Jospin resigned, and [Jean-Pierre Raffarin] the new prime minister was appointed.