Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi – December 8, 1993

Reports from the heart hospital indicate that Ayatollah Golpaygani's condition has worsened since midnight last night and he is alive tonight with artificial respiration. Ayatollah Khamenei gave us a message to be ready to pay tribute to him in case of his death.

I did the work until half past nine in the morning. The athletes succeeded. Mr. [Hasan] Ghafouri Fard, [Head of the Physical Education Organization], gave a report of successes to counter the negative wave after Qatar's failure. I also encouraged them. Awards were given.

We went to [Mehrabad] airport to welcome the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Mrs. Benazir Bhutto. As he had promised, he entered with an Iranian chador that he had thrown over his shoulder and a scarf that was completely covered. We held the sun ceremony together. He did not shake hands with the officials. We had a good interview and they were very grateful that I went to meet them at the airport. He has eighty people with him. They went to Saadabad with Engineer Turkan, [Minister of Roads and Transport] and I came to my office.

The Hungarian minister, who is the head of the joint commission, came with Dr. [Isa] Kalantari. Our talks were mostly about the cooperation between the two countries. He insisted that I travel to Hungary. I emphasized the need to balance exchanges. Fazeh came in the afternoon. He talked about sports management and asked to be present in Mrs. Bhutto's negotiations; I accepted

The evening of the Pakistani delegation came. We had negotiations in two types of meetings. Faeze also came. Negotiations were held regarding gas transfer with the cooperation of India, Pakistan, Qatar and Oman, the construction of airplanes and ships, the purchase of heavy engineering machines from us in exchange for rice, the construction of a sugar factory, the issues of Afghanistan, Central Asia, Bosnia, ECO, and the International Criminal Court for the Serbs, etc. He wanted us to help them make peace with India. It was said that there should be a connection between the gas pipeline and the Kashmir issue.

We had a dinner party at night. Chastity and children also participated. The issue of Shia in Pakistan was discussed. It was claimed that during the time of his father [Zulfiqar Ali] Bhutto, they had an open project with France through plutonium and a secret project through uranium enrichment that were close to fruition, but with the intervention of the United States, which led to the downfall of his father, the program was stopped and was no longer pursued seriously, and now they have the technical knowledge of a nuclear bomb, but they have not built it. Recently, it has been set to stay at this level. He said that the construction of the missile is in the initial stage and they have not even been able to operate the Tau missile assembly plant. He also said a lot about their economic situation, which is not reliable because he does not have deep information; For example, he said that within two months, they have increased their foreign exchange reserves from three billion dollars to nine billion dollars.