Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi – August 22, 1998

The issue of the American attacks on Afghanistan and Sudan is still receiving media attention. Osama bin Laden, [the leader of Al-Qaeda], has threatened revenge and has called for more jihad, to save the Islamic holy places in Palestine and Saudi Arabia from the captivity of Zionism and arrogance. Mr. Boris Yeltsin, [the President of Russia], has also called America's action ugly state terrorism.

The United Nations has announced that the Sudanese factory was producing veterinary medicine for Iraq. America says it had a plan to produce VX [= nerve agent]. Most Islamic countries have condemned America and most Western countries have approved. Russia's financial crisis caused the Russian parliament to ask Yeltsin to resign. The Eastern crisis has gradually spread to South America too.

First thing, Mr. Ebrahim Amini, [the head of the secretariat of the Assembly of Experts], came. He was worried about the issue of appointing the heads of the three branches in the Assembly of Experts and said it is against the constitution and causes the weakening of the Leadership, and it is better that they give a concession only to the extent of removing the examination.

The Council of the Expediency Discernment Council held a session. Before the session, there was talk about the Taliban and the American attack on Afghanistan and Sudan. Engineer Mir-Hossein Mousavi, [a member of the Council], said these indications show that the Taliban are dependent on America, and I said it is possible that America, with this action, wants to cleanse them. Mr. Khatami, [the President], spoke about the lack of information about Afghanistan and the reason for the American attack, which was also a kind of attack on the Ministry of Intelligence.

Two more clauses of the oil and gas policies were approved and the discussion about the use of foreign resources in the oil and gas industries remained unfinished. Mr. Khatami, in a private session, told me that he had heard that Mr. Karbaschi's case has been given to a branch under the presidency of Mr. Razini, which was not supposed to be given. I said that Mr. Mohammad Yazdi has said that he does not have a branch at all. Mr. Mohammad Mohammadi Reyshahri complained about the inefficiency of the judicial commission [of the Expediency Discernment Council] that the members usually do not participate.

After the session, Mr. Seyyed Mohammad Mousavi Khoeiniha came. He sought assistance for the issues of the Assembly of Experts election and the non-strictness of the Guardian Council and expressed concern about the pressure on their faction and said that usually he himself is summoned to the Special Court for the Clergy once a week and they have sentenced Mr. Asadollah Bayat to one year in prison and have also summoned Mr. Rasoul Montajabnia; I said it is arranged that the examination of the candidates be written and fair and public.

Mr. Ebrahim Amini was my lunch guest. He expressed concern about the country's situation and the condition of the Leadership and the unbridled freedoms and the insults of the newspapers and the economic problems and asked me to intervene and save the country and the revolution. He said that in the meeting of the Society of Seminary Teachers with Mr. Khatami, they have spoken about the dangers of freedom, unbridledness, and the people's problems, and Mr. Khatami has not given a correct answer. He said Ayatollah Montazeri has not agreed to meet him.

In the afternoon, Mr. Hubert Védrine, the Foreign Minister of France, and his companions came. There was talk about bilateral cooperation in Afghanistan and the Caucasus and Algeria and Palestine and so on, and he said Europe has decided to cooperate more with Iran. I said France, at the beginning of the revolution, did not use the good opportunity it had, and now another opportunity has arisen; let them use it. Given the importance it gives to cooperation with Iran.

In the negotiation with the French Foreign Minister, we also had important points. I criticized the West's policy, especially France's, in Algeria, that they preferred dictatorship to democracy. He said, I sincerely accept that the West is opposed to the people's sovereignty, as religion and faith, and for this reason it did not accept the victory of the Algerian people in the elections, and fundamentally it had been agreed in advance not to allow the Islamic parties to move, and Mr. Chadli Bendjedid, [the President of Algeria], broke this agreement. Regarding Afghanistan, he said if Iran and Russia and preferably Pakistan too reach a common policy, France will support it. One of the ladies accompanying him had tied her head with a cloth resembling a turban.

Mr. Ali Abedzadeh, the head of the Aseman [Airlines] Company, came. He gave a work report and said the [crash of the] Fokker plane case is nearing conclusion. He sought assistance to use the facilities of the Air Force. Mr. Mohammad Saeedikia, [the Minister of Construction Jihad], came. He gave a report on the situation of the Jihad and praised the rich ground prepared by the Construction government. He complained about the budget shortage. He explained that if the infrastructures that were prepared in the First and Second Plans for shrimp farming and cold-water and warm-water fish farming and also for animal husbandry and beekeeping and also rural industrial zones and the development of carpet weaving and fishing ports and handicrafts and animal processing industries are used, in all these cases we will have mass exports and millions of jobs, but unfortunately in the government, the spirit of sectionalism prevents attention to the existing grounds and potentials, and he sought assistance from me to solve the problems and raised the possibility of the rationing of chicken distribution due to the great increase in the price of chicken as a result of the non-supply of poultry feed and the outbreak of a disease and the problem of day-old chicks. I said rationing will blow away the past efforts.