Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi – August 28, 1985

Early in the morning, we went to the Abike ground force base and participated in the morning ceremony and visited several warehouses of weapon parts and car parks, and the officials gave reports; Overall, they have a regular situation. From there, we went to the [construction] site of Shahid Rajaei power plant. The concrete pouring of the first unit out of eight has started. The managers there were upset with the strictness of my guards. They gave a report of their own successes and said that many of the tasks that foreigners usually do in such power plants are done by themselves, as a result, they have increased the foreign exchange share of the project from 85% to 48% and have taken steps towards self-sufficiency in the construction of power plants.

We reached the parliament at three in the afternoon and I rested for an hour. Mr. Velayati came and reported his trip to Syria. He is satisfied and they are going to send the promised missiles. [Mr. Boheslav Snofek] the Czechoslovak Foreign Minister came and spoke at length. He expressed an opinion similar to ours on most issues. I commented on Afghanistan and Israel and the destruction of nuclear weapons and complained about the Eastern Bloc for not cooperating with the Iranian Islamic Revolution.

Mr. [Hossein] Nili, Minister of Mines and Metals, came and gave a report on the situation of iron and steel smelting in Mobarake, Ahvaz steel and copper. He disagrees with the managing director of Sarcheshme Copper Company. Mr. Mousavi Ardabili and [Mirhossein Mousavi] the Prime Minister were my guests in the evening. It was decided to take steps to release more prisoners and it was decided to agree to engineer [Mahdi] Bazargan's trip to Germany. Consultations were also held regarding the issues of the country. Mr. Sayad [Shirazi] informed that the main Qadir Chahar operation, which was supposed to be carried out tonight, has been canceled and the plan will be replaced. I came home late.