Mr. [Seyed Mehdi Mir] Abutalebi, our ambassador to Turkmenistan, came. He was concerned that relations between the two countries had cooled and asked me to accept Mr. [Saparmurat] Niyazov’s invitation and travel to Turkmenistan in order to ease the tensions in relations.
Mr. [Seyed Mehdi Mir] Abutalebi, our ambassador to Turkmenistan, came. He was upset that relations between the two countries had cooled and asked me to accept Mr. [Saparmurat] Niyazov’s invitation and travel to Turkmenistan in order to improve relations. He said that their foreign-exchange situation had become very bad and that the manat [the currency of Turkmenistan] was now virtually worthless, while they had no significant foreign-exchange earnings either, because the cotton crop was in poor condition and their gas was not being exported. The Russians were not buying it and were also preventing its transit to Ukraine, with only a small amount coming to Iran. They were very eager to conclude a major gas sales agreement with Iran. The pipeline to Pakistan or Turkey had also remained merely a proposal, and their petroleum products were not being exported well either, because they lacked transportation routes and the cost of shipping was very high. They wanted to connect their electricity grid to Iran so that electricity could be exported to Turkey through Iran. He said that suitcase trade from Iran had recently become more active.
Mr. [Ali] Vakili, head of the Petroleum Research Institute, came. He had traveled to Russia and visited their research centers in Siberia and Moscow. He had been impressed by their scale and had concluded several contracts for the transfer of technical know-how. In my view, he was exaggerating somewhat.
[Mr. Ali Baghbanian], representative of Natanz, came. He invited me to go to Natanz for the rosewater distillation ceremony; I accepted. The directors of the Foundation for Special Diseases came. Dr. [Mohammad-Baqer] Larijani, [Secretary-General of the Foundation], gave a report, and I also gave some encouraging remarks.
In the afternoon, Mr. Ali Rahmani, [a member of my security detail], came. He criticized Faezeh’s conduct, saying that she did not take the family or me into consideration and was gradually turning the intelligence and security forces against herself, and that eventually they would retaliate against her. He particularly criticized her behavior at the Press Festival. He said, “Why don’t the other members of the Executives of Construction Party take the lead in defending Karbaschi, while Faezeh is the one putting herself on the line?”
Mr. Kurt Waldheim, [former Secretary-General of the United Nations], came. We discussed Kosovo and cooperation between Iran and Austria. He believes that Russia can no longer regain its former position. Given that the two previous world wars began in the Balkans, he does not consider this conflict harmless either. He said that, between his two visits to Iran, Tehran had become much more developed.
In Yugoslavia, the Chinese Embassy was bombed today, causing casualties.
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