Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi – November 20, 1993

Mr. [Abd al-Hossein] Wahaji came. He talked about his job, which is going to be the head of customs, and asked for my support and financial assistance of two percent and permission to transfer his former colleagues from the Ministry of Commerce. Nourbakhsh and Mohammad Khan came. The management of the central bank was discussed.

Mr. [Syed Ali Akbar] Ojaqnejad, [representative of the leadership in the Republic of Azerbaijan] came. The cultural headquarters of Azerbaijan gave the report of the former Soviet Union and demanded funds. The governors of Khuzestan, Ilam and Kermanshah came. Each of them gave a short report of their own province. They applied for reconstruction credits and wanted the arrangement to be the same as last year. The program organization intends to give credits in separate sections and not as reconstruction.

Dr. Habibi, [first vice president] came. Negotiated about the central bank, the second five-year plan, the construction of a guest house and the taking back of the government villa from the IRGC in Ramsar. He said about the contract report of the filter factory for dialysis with the Red Crescent.

In the evening, I went to Imam's shrine to open the Basij anniversary ceremony. The commanders of the districts and bases were gathered. I gave a speech. They expressed warm and passionate feelings. Ahmad Agha described some of his Umrah journey and said that the cost of living in Saudi Arabia is much higher than in Iran.

At night, the Supreme Council of National Security had a meeting. We talked about the harassment of Sunni Afghans towards the Shia city of Qamiyeh next to our border and the quality of dealing with it, as well as Turkey's proposals for cooperation between the two countries in suppressing armed opposition, and we had approvals.