Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi – November 10, 2003

Mr. Mohseni, [Economic Deputy] came from the Ministry of Information. He said, with the follow-ups he has done, it has become clear that the problem lies with the managers of [the oil company] Statoil [Norway]. It seems that some of them have taken credit from Abbas [Yazdan Panah].

The interviews continued with Mr. [Abbas] Saliminmin, [Director of the Office of Iranian History Studies and Compilation] about the issues of dispute with Bani Sadr.

In the evening, a group of young people [orphans] under the cover of the relief committee [Imam Khomeini, for Iftar] were my guests. Mr. [Sidreza] Nyeri, [head of the relief committee] reported and complained about the government's lack of cooperation with the committee. Prizes were given to several Quran memorizers [Mr. Mohammad Ali Shariati, Abdul Mahdi Wardati and Mehdi Ramadani and Ms. Somia Ardestani, Mansoura Rajabi and Zohra Ghafouri].

The news that is published about Dr. [Hasan] Rouhani, [Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council]'s trip to Vienna and Moscow, reports an agreement on controversial issues.

Rumors of the dissolution or change of the Iraqi Governing Council have been raised by the United States. The Israeli cabinet has approved the exchange of prisoners with Hezbollah [Lebanon], but since Israel said that it will not release one of the Lebanese prisoners on the list, named Samir Qantar, [a prominent Lebanese prisoner whose release was the final condition of negotiations by Hezbollah], the exchange has not been carried out.  In Europe, opposition to the construction of Israel's security wall is rising.

In Afghanistan's Zabul province, seven districts have been captured by the Taliban and the conflicts have increased. The World Bank has announced that development and reconstruction will not be possible until security is established in Afghanistan.  

Richard Perle, [senior advisor to the US Department of Defense], who is known as the architect of the Iraq war, has admitted that the situation in Iraq has worsened and it is no longer possible to be indifferent to the Iraqi issue.  

Saudi Arabia says the death toll from the explosion [in Riyadh] has reached 17. American officials have criticized Saudi Arabia for Islamic education in schools and claim that it is this education that leads people to Al-Qaeda. It was in the media that they allocated 120 million dollars to fight against Islam.

In Brazil, a group of prisoners who dug a tunnel to escape died when the tunnel collapsed, but another group of prisoners took advantage of the situation and escaped.

The media wrote that Dick Cheney, [US Vice President] and [Andrew Card], White House chief of staff, escaped from the palace in the accident of a small personal plane entering the space near the White House by mistake. American fighters chased the plane.