Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi – October 26, 2003

A group of officials and commanders of the IRGC from Qom, Arak, Qazvin, Zanjan, and Semnan came. The commander of the 17th Ali ibn Abi Talib Division gave a report on the program to commemorate Martyr Zain al-Din and the five thousand martyrs of the Ali ibn Abi Talib Division, and I spoke about the importance of keeping the names of the martyrs alive, especially in Qom, and the current situation in Iraq. They expect me to go to Qom for the ceremony in the month of Ramadan.

Messrs. Hossein Marashi, the representative of Kerman, and Ali Hashemi, the representative of Rafsanjan, came from the parliament and said that the four-party statement [of Iran with France, Britain, and Germany] regarding nuclear issues has caused the representatives to be surprised and critical of the change in the Leader's position; although they themselves are among the factors of pressure to change his position.

Mr. Seyyed Yahya Mir-Tabar, the Friday prayer leader of Kelardasht, and his son came. They spoke about the problems of working in Kelardasht given the few religious forces and the majority of Ali-Allahis, and sought assistance for building cultural centers.

A group of deputies and advisors of the Ministry of Intelligence came and complained about the judiciary's mistreatment of the ministry in the Zahra Kazemi case and also about the creation of parallel intelligence institutions, and sought assistance to relieve the pressure on the ministry.

At noon, a group of relatives came for the marriage ceremony of the children of Ahmad Agha Hashemian and Sheikh Hossein Hashemian. They were also my lunch guests. I officiated the marriage with Sheikh Mohammad. Sheikh Hossein gave a report on the progress of the preparations for the water transfer project to Rafsanjan. Mohsen Hashemian said that due to the low pistachio crop in America this year, the condition of Iran's pistachio market is good.

In the afternoon I had an interview with Al-Manar television about Iran's nuclear issues, Iraq, and Palestine.

At night Dr. Hassan Rouhani, the Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, came and gave explanations about the preliminaries of the text of the negotiations with Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, and the three European foreign ministers, and the Sa'dabad statement. He is complaining that on Friday [in the Tehran Friday prayer sermons] I did not say anything about his work. He is not certain that the answers to the Agency's questions will convince them. He suspects they will ask new questions and ultimately the agreements will not reach a result, although the Europeans have promised.

He said that for the decisions he had previously obtained the written consent of the Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei. He recounted the story of the tension at the [question and answer] session at Shahroud University and that the majority of those present approved and that it was a good thing. He consulted about traveling to Russia, China, and Europe to pursue the goals. He is upset by the oppositions. He said that if he is not supported, he might abandon it.

In Baghdad, while Paul Wolfowitz, the US Deputy Secretary of Defense who had come to Iraq to strengthen the occupiers, was at the Al-Rashid Hotel with a group of American officials, eight missiles were fired from the zoo near the hotel, causing severe explosions. A number were killed and wounded. They canceled their afternoon program, and it became clear how vulnerable America is. The collision of an American tank with an Iraqi taxi and the horrific death of the family of the taxi's occupants has severely inflamed anti-American sentiment in Iraq.

Anti-war demonstrations in Washington and San Francisco with the presence of tens of thousands of people in 140 American cities are the beginning of serious anti-war movements inside America. The harsh words of Ramsey Clark, an election candidate, have made the work harder.