Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani – April 12, 2003

The first session of the Assembly was held in the new year.  At the request of the members, the whole time was spent discussing the issues of Iraq.  The ambiguous and important point is the lack of defense of the Iraqi army and especially the [presidential] guard forces against the attackers' attack on Baghdad and the mysterious disappearance of the Baathist leaders for which no answer can be given, as well as the chaos ruling the country of Iraq and the control of some of the central and southern cities of Iraq by the people, especially the Shiites.

Mr. [Hasan] Firouzabadi, [Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces] said, the forces of the Badr Corps have gradually entered Iraq and are among the people.  Mr. [Syed Mahmoud Hashemi] Shahroudi, [Chief of the Judiciary and former head of the Supreme Assembly of the Islamic Revolution of Iraq], explained about Moqtadi Sadr, the son of Mohammad Sadiq Sadr, that the murder of Abdul Majid Khoei was attributed to his supporters. 

In the afternoon, Mr. [Abbas Waez] Tabasi, [Ahmed] Jannati, [Ali Akbar] Natiq [Nuri], [Qorban Ali] Dori [Najafabadi] and [Mohammed Ali] Mohadi [Kermani] were my guests.  We had discussions about the acquittal of Nasser Tabasi and the issues of Iraq and the government's twin bills [= "Amendment of the Parliament Election Law" and "Clarification of the Limits and Powers of the President"], the first of which was rejected by the Guardian Council with 37 objections.

In the evening, Mr. Engineer Taghikopai and his son came.  They explained about the establishment of sugarcane and agriculture projects in Ahvaz during the Shah's regime.  His son is a representative of the Bombardier company, which won the tender for the Mashhad subway cars and complained that they would not hand it over to him.  Each wagon costs about one and a half million dollars - twice the price of Tehran subway wagons.

I stayed in my office at night.  In the domestic media, my interview [with the magazine Strategy] about relations with America and Egypt has had an unprecedented reflection;  But by distorting [referendum request for relations with America] and it has a lot of positive effect in the society who imagine that I am trying to solve the problem with America. 

In Afghanistan, insecurity and conflicts are increasing day by day.  The city of Mosul has also been captured by the invaders, but the chaos and looting, especially the looting of the important properties of the Mosul Museum, is more intense than in other places.  The leaders of Russia, Germany and France have held a meeting in St. Petersburg and have considered the occupation forces to be responsible for maintaining the security of Iraq.  They want the future of Iraq in the hands of the Iraqi people.  The United States has also put a reward for finding 59 of the heads of the Iraqi regime who have disappeared, and today one of them, who was Saddam's top adviser, has surrendered. It is said that Barzan Tikriti, Saddam's half-brother, has also been killed.