Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi - December 21, 2001

 There have been statements and pressures in the media and statements that have asked Mr. Khatami to refrain from double-edged and to state his frank positions in tomorrow's meeting with the students

In Cairo, the conference of Arab foreign ministers made do with a rhetorical statement.

Full text of the diary:

I was at home. He spent all his active time studying philosophical and jurisprudential books and correcting the indexes of volume 11 of the Tafsir Guide. In the evening, Tahereh's sister-in-law and relatives came and asked for help to solve the problem of their son, Gholamreza, who had a problem due to a dispute with one of his colleagues and we had the opportunity to meet after a long time.  

There have been statements and pressures in the media and statements that have asked Mr. Khatami, [the president], to refrain from duplicity in tomorrow's meeting with the students and to state his explicit positions.  

 The Hamas movement announced that it had suspended the program of martyrdom operations inside the occupied territories of Palestine in 1948 until further notice, and that Israeli forces had withdrawn from some of the newly occupied areas in Gaza and the West Bank, and that negotiations between the Israeli security directors and the PA had begun. In Cairo, the conference of Arab foreign ministers made do with a rhetorical statement, and the Saudi press wrote that the conference, under pressure from the United States, took a conservative position, and the Syrian media and the Syrian foreign minister criticized the conservatism of the conference.

The fate of [Osama] bin Laden, [the leader of al-Qaeda], is unknown. There are conflicting reports from his death in Tora Bora to fleeing to Iran, Somalia, Iraq, Pakistan, or hiding in Afghanistan, and the condition of Mullah Omar, [the leader of the Taliban], is unknown.  

 In Argentina, the president and the economy minister resigned following a riot in which 22 people were killed, shops were looted and vandalized. The UN General Assembly passed a resolution against Israel and in favor of the Palestinians by a large vote, which had failed in the Security Council because of the U.S. veto.

Kazem [Marashi, my brother-in-law], had prepared a good watermelon for tonight – Yalda night – which we used.