Akbar Hashemi's Memoirs - January 22, 2000 - Informal Meeting with Abbas Vaez-Tabasi, Dori Najafabadi, and Ahmad Jannati on Elections and Disqualified Candidates

An informal meeting took place with Abbas Vaez-Tabasi, Dori Najafabadi, and Ahmad Jannati about the upcoming elections and the disqualified candidates, during a break from the Expediency Council session. Ahmad Jannati expressed concerns about a recent Expediency Council decision that has somewhat limited the Guardian Council's ability to disqualify unfit candidates.

The final interview session with Masoud Safiri was also conducted. This marked the 11th session, with the plan to publish it as a book.

Additionally, Amir Tehrani, Deputy for Parliamentary Affairs at the Ministry of Intelligence, visited and expressed dissatisfaction with the ministry’s lack of action. He mentioned that a complaint had been prepared against Akbar Ganji for his offensive article titled "The Red Eminence," which was seen as an insult to the late Imam, the Supreme Leader, myself, and the legacy of the war. I advised against filing the complaint at this time, cautioning that it could be exploited during the election season. Even leftist newspapers had criticized Ganji's article.

Former Deputy Chief of Staff Gholamreza Javadi, who had been imprisoned on moral charges, also visited after being released. He brought the court ruling allowing him to return to work, though he had been fined.

In other international news, the ongoing scandal involving Helmut Kohl and the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in Germany remains hot. One of the party’s officials committed suicide amid allegations that 12 million Deutsche Marks in party accounts had unclear origins. Former French President François Mitterrand has also been implicated as a potential source of these funds.

Yasser mentioned that Iran’s lawyer in the lawsuit against Siemens in Germany regarding the Bushehr nuclear power plant has reported a ruling in Iran's favor. Previously, Gholamreza Aghazadeh, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, had expressed pessimism about the outcome of the case.