Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi - May 8, 2002

Exemplary workers came.  I told them about the need to create an atmosphere of creativity and innovation and to avoid gang disputes.

I went to see the Supreme Leader. They are concerned about the anti-constitutional moves of the 2nd of Khordad and are dissatisfied with Mr. Khatami's statements about the turmoil and the threat of resignation.

Full text of the diary:

Mr. [Ghadrat] Alikhani, the representative of Boyin Zahra, came. He explained the differences between the 2nd Khordad Front in the elections for the faction's board of directors in the parliament. The Assembly of Clergy and some other groups have boycotted the elections in protest against the monopoly of the Cooperatives, and they have ignored this boycott and have held the elections. He asked me to tell the [Party] of the Agents [of Construction] to take the side of the Assembly of Clergy in the Assembly, apparently their differences are serious.  

Mr. Safdar Hosseini, the Minister of Labor [and Social Affairs], came and reported on the plan to create jobs, asking the existing workshops – which is about two million – to recruit unemployed workers, and in exchange for recruiting an unemployed person, they would give them a five-year loan of three million tomans and a commitment to pay the workers' insurance premiums.

Exemplary workers came.  They are all bachelor's and master's degrees, but they are subject to the labor law and have been exemplified because of innovation and invention. I told them about the need to create an atmosphere of creativity and innovation and to avoid gang disputes.   
Mr. Mohammadi came from the Ministry of Intelligence and introduced the main circle of hardliners of the 2nd of Khordad who have decided to try to amend the constitution and limit the Velayat-e Faqih and said the ways to amend them. He suggested opening up the social and cultural space. He made a suggestion about the use of non-gang and independent forces in the upcoming elections, and said that Mr. [Gholamreza] Aghazadeh was not at fault in the case of [Shahram] Jazayeri, and asked for his help.

Dr. [Abdullah] Jasbi, [the president of the Islamic Azad University], Sharifzadeh, and Shahrokhi came. They explained about the virtual university and the IT project. Dr. Jasbi expressed concern about the possibility of the replacement of the representative of the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution in the three-member delegation. The era of Seyyed Abolfazl Mousavi Tabrizi [the former Prosecutor General] came. In order to obtain a visa from England, he sought medical treatment. He complains about Mr. Hashemi Shahroudi, [the head of the judiciary]. 
[Messrs. Hadi Al-Daoud and Abbasi], the managers of the Shahrvand store(s), came and talked about the lack of attention of the government and the Tehran City Council to the store, the concern about its privatization, and the need to strengthen such stores and modern distribution.  

I went to see the Supreme Leader. They are feeling better. They are concerned about the anti-constitutional moves of the 2nd of Khordad and are dissatisfied with the statements of Mr. Khatami, [the president], about the turmoil and the threat of resignation. They made some remarks about the Foreign Investment Law. The general issues of the country were also discussed.

We flew to Mashhad. At the airport, Mr. [Abbas Vaez] Tabasi, the Custodian of Astan Quds Razavi and Mr. [Seyyed Hassan] Rasouli, the governor of [Khorasan] and the directors of the province were welcomed. A short interview was conducted. We went to the banquet hall of Astan al-Quds. A group of personalities were present for dinner. The situation in the province and Afghanistan was discussed. Most of the trade and communication with Afghanistan is through Khorasan province. Mr. Rasouli said that he was in Kabul, the city is very bad and has not been rebuilt, but the security of Kabul is not bad. In Afghanistan, reconstruction has not yet begun, and more trade is about foodstuffs, and Iran's domestic goods are the first words. There is also a lot of transit. For Kabul, several city buses are scheduled to depart from the Shahab Khodro [factory], which belongs to the Holy Shrine. 

We spoke with Mr. Tabasi about the political situation and the public launch of the demand to change the constitution, which was reflected in the recent Aftab magazine and the ongoing Isfahan Students Conference.  

[Palestinians] killed 20 Israelis and wounded 50 in a martyrdom operation at a nightclub in a town south of Tel Aviv. It has had a great repercussion, especially after the Israeli invasion of the West Bank, which was thought to have postponed such operations. [Yasser] Arafat, [the president of the Palestinian Authority], condemned it, but the others are happy. [Ariel] Sharon, [Israeli Prime Minister], left his trip to the United States unfinished and returned to Israel.

The UN General Assembly, by an overwhelming majority, passed a resolution in support of the Palestinians and called on the Secretary-General to prepare a comprehensive report on Israel's crimes in order to compensate for the cancellation of the fact-finding mission. The United States, Israel, and two other countries were opposed.

An explosion on a Pakistani navy bus killed 15 Westerners, three of them French, and injured many more, causing panic, similar to the bombing of a synagogue in Tunisia that killed 15 Germans. The firing of missiles at American centers in Afghanistan continues. The U.S. is exhuming graves in the Tora Bora Mountains where the bodies of [Osama] bin Laden and [Taliban leader] Mullah Omar may be found. They do not know their fate. At the end of the night, I went on a pilgrimage.