Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi – August 29, 1993

At eight o'clock in the morning, I went to the Technical Faculty of Tehran University to open the Institute of Metallurgy, which was built with the funds of the Ministry of Mines and Metals. I visited different parts of the seventeen thousand meter building. Mr. [Hossein] Mahlouji, [Minister of Mines and Metals] and Dr. [Syed Mohammad Reza] Hashemi [Golpaygani, Minister of Culture and Higher Education] welcomed and reported. I also spoke encouragingly about cooperation between industries and universities. Mr. [Mohammed] Rahimian, the president of Tehran University, complained that there was no time left for him to speak in the program.

I went to my office. Mr. [Syed Abul Hassan] Fadel came from the [Islamic] Unity Party of Afghanistan. He gave a report on the situation in Afghanistan and Hizb-e-Wahdat. He said that they cannot have basic cooperation with Pashtuns and they will not tolerate Shia, and that cooperation with [Golbuddin] Hekmatyar is a tactic in the current situation, and finally they should unite with non-Pashtuns. We want to give more help to the Afghan government. Let's print their banknotes and help them in road construction. He said that in the recent war, they took the sensitive areas of Kabul from the hands of other groups and captured the reserves of Scuds, and their casualties were not high, contrary to the propaganda.

The Supreme Youth Council had a meeting. We approved the description of the duties of commissions and provincial organizations and appointed experts. In the evening, I attended the meeting of the government board. We had an unfinished discussion about the tariffs and credits of the second plan, and the exemption of telecommunications from taxes was brought up.

Ayatollah Khamenei was my guest that night. We negotiated about the Ministry of Economy, Broadcasting and Shipping of China and Afghanistan. We discussed the introduction of the Minister of Economy on the phone with Mr. Natiq [Nouri, Speaker of the Islamic Council]. It was supposed to be after the parliament holidays.