Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi – May 9, 1983

After prayers, Mr. [Ayatollah] Khamenei and Rabbani [member of the Guardian Council] came to the Majlis, and we consulted about the candidates for the central council and general issues of the party and the country. In the open session, we had the bill for establishing the Ministry of Intelligence; it was making relatively good progress. Before the agenda, during remarks by Mr. [Saeed] Amani, representative of Tehran, the representatives' protests disrupted order. I criticized them.

At noon, a group of young men heading to the fronts, each of whom had been wounded several times, came. I spoke to them and was deeply moved by their spirit. I also had several meetings. In the afternoon, the Minister of Roads and Transportation came and gave a report on his trip to China. He had been impressed by some of their achievements toward self-sufficiency. I asked for explanations about the railways, roads, ports, and transportation. Until eight-thirty, I read the reports and took care of the work.

News came that Iraq had launched a missile attack on the Forouzan oil wells in the Persian Gulf—the area shared with Saudi Arabia—and that it had been effective. At night, I came home. I watched an interview with [Reza] Shaltouki of the Tudeh Party and the film Crocodile Tears. I went to sleep late. A letter arrived from the Friday Prayer Imam of Kerman, saying that at the Friday Prayer Imams' seminar, they had deceived him into signing the letter to the Imam. A letter from Mr. [Jalaleddin] Taheri [Friday Prayer Imam of Isfahan] also arrived, in which he somehow wanted to absolve himself of, or make himself appear justified regarding, participating in drafting and signing the letter.