Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi – April 24, 1993

I was in my office at half past eight in the morning. Mr. [Syed Mohammad] Gharehi, [Minister of Post, Telegraph and Telephone], [Mohsen] Noorbakhsh, [Minister of Economic Affairs and Finance] and [Masoud Roghani] Zanjani, [Head of Program and Budget Organization] and [Head of Program and Budget Organization] and Akhvi Mohammad, [Head of Radio and Broadcasting Organization] and experts came to investigate the issue of building an independent satellite.

The Ministry of Posts, Telegraphs and Telephones is in favor of independent satellites and has prepared the Zahra satellite plan. Others disagree and claim that it is cost-effective to rent a channel from an existing satellite. I listened to the explanations of both sides and the discussion remained unfinished; It was agreed that the next meeting will be an expert on the number of transponders needed. All in all, Mr. Sohari and his friends were upset; They thought that the result of this meeting would secure their goal. Dr. Noorbakhsh stayed and got ideas for his future trip to America to participate in the meeting of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

Dr. [Hasan] Habibi, [first vice president] came. We discussed the place of residence of the leaders of the Islamic Conference Organization and the content of their interview, currency issues, etc. Dr. Velayati came. He gave the report of the trip to Türkiye for the burial of Mr. [Turgut] Ozal, [the late president of Türkiye] and said that the Turkish people turned the ceremony into a religious form. To travel to Pakistan to participate in the meeting of foreign ministers of the Organization of the Islamic Conference. They also talked about helping the President of Senegal and the issue of Mr. Seyed Ahmed Mousavi.

[Mr. Ali Mohammad Gharibani, Nour al-Din Aghdam and Mirnaqi Ghazipour], the representatives of Ardabil came in connection with the election of the governor of the newly established province of Ardabil. [Mr. Abdullah Nouri] The Minister of Interior and the deputies came to report on the progress of the computerization of the elections and also talked about the Afghan refugees.

In the evening, we had a meeting for currency policy. We had many approvals. The progress of intervention in the foreign exchange market is good and the dollar is depreciating. I arrived home at ten o'clock at night. Yasir, who had returned from a trip to Urmia and Ardabil, gave a report on the progress of the road construction project inside Urmia lake (= Shahid Kalantari highway) and also the Sarein area of ​​Ardabil and the farmers' complaints about the high cost of fertilizers and poisons.