Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi – March 24, 1998

In the news, Russian issues are important. Mr. [Boris] Yeltsin, the president, after two weeks of rest in the convalescent home due to fatigue, shocked everyone and dissolved the cabinet and dismissed the prime minister and all the ministers; He had a history of such movements, but not to this extent. The interim prime minister was installed. They said that the policies have not changed, but this action was due to weak implementation. There are different interpretations and we have to wait for the future. Another case is the 11-day trip [Mr. Bill Clinton], the president of the United States, to African countries. [Ms. Hillary Clinton], his wife and [Ms. Madeleine Albright], his Secretary of State, had long trips to Africa, mostly to the same countries I visited. The upward trend of oil prices continues and has reached four dollars per barrel, and some interpretations consider it to be the result of my trip to Saudi Arabia and our joint decisions.

In political circles, discussions and interpretations of the leaders' statements in Mashhad are discussed. Some say that the superficial definition of leadership in Mr. Khatami's New Year's message was a prelude to the opposition to press policies and de-escalation with America. They wanted to separate the president's personal account from these issues and some believe that the manner of Mr. Khatami's interview and the lack of a photo of the imam and the leader in the interview and emphasizing the need to de-escalate in order to obtain foreign capital to solve the problems caused the leader's decision to criticize.

He spent the evening studying history and reports. I read the details and problems of the coup d'état of 1299 between Seyyed Zia [Tabatabaei] and Reza Khan, and then the removal of Seyyed Zia and the strengthening of Reza Khan. In the evening, the diving instructor came and took me for diving training. Saeed [Lahoti, Fati's wife] was also with us; We went with Saeed's insistence. I wore a diving suit. I wore an oxygen capsule and tied a nine-kilogram weight to my waist. We went three meters deep into the sea and dived for an hour; It is exhilarating. Watching the bottom of the sea, with colorful fish and various corals, was very interesting. I was a little scared; Because of the dream I had this evening. I dreamed that my father died and we were crying. I was moving under his body and felt the weight of the coffin, but after a few minutes, practicing in the depths and getting used to breathing with compressed air, my mood normalized. The coach was satisfied with his courage and quick learning.