Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi – November 28, 1992

After praying and taking a bath, I packed my suitcase and went to the airport with Mehdi and his companions to travel to Yazd. We arrived at a quarter past eight and immediately took off. The Ministers of Mines and Metals, Power, Post and Telegraph and Telephone, Mr. [Hamid] Mirzadeh, [Jalil] Besharti, [Reza] Amrollahi, [Abdullah] Jasbi, [President of the Islamic Azad University] and officials and representatives of the province were there. The Ministers of Jihad Construction, Road and Transport and Industries arrived later.

We were at the Yazd airport at a quarter past nine. An official reception was held. We moved towards the city. The people of Yazd gave a very magnificent welcome and, as they say, unique in the history of Yazd. We went to the Hazira Mosque to participate in the meeting of the families of martyrs and martyrs. The crowd was huge and enthusiastic. There are more than three thousand martyrs and six hundred missing. Relatively, Yazd has sacrificed more than all of Iran in the war. I visited the grave of martyr Ayatollah [Mohammed] Sadouqi, [the late Imam Juma of Yazd]. The children of martyrs had good performances. They met very warmly and passionately. Mr. [Mohammad Kazem] Rashid, the head of Yazd Martyr Foundation, gave a good speech. I also spoke to them in detail.

We went to the city square. People had a huge gathering at a wide crossroads. Mr

[Mohammed Ali] Sadouqi, [Imam Juma] and Dr. [Syed Abbas] Paknejad, [Yazd Representative], gave a warm welcome and the people welcomed them warmly. I gave a detailed and encouraging speech and promised to transfer water from Zayandeh River to Yazd, which is an important demand of Yazdis.

After lunch and a short rest at the governor's office and listening to the news, we headed to the university. There were a large number of students and professors. Yazd province has more than fifteen thousand students, half of which belong to Islamic Azad University. Dr. [Sidkazem] Kazemini, [President of Yazd University of Medical Sciences] reported; I also spoke for a long time and explained the educational and research policies. Students expressed warm feelings.

We went to Ghadir factory. They produce spinning and weaving machines. It is a huge and modern factory with Swiss technology. Managers explained. Production has just started. Cars are expensive. Because currently half of the parts are imported, they will be expensive, they will have market problems. We visited the assembly hall.

From there we went to the telecommunication cable factory. I prayed Maghrib. They explained in a big hall by presenting a movie. Father and son performed a good and cool song. The father played and his son sang; Their family is Tawakli.

We visited the large copper cable hall and the fiber optic cable hall; It was interesting to me. They were organized and explained well. The speed of action is good and even the building is innovative. It seems that they are the first unit that carries out transportation with robots. The industry is good and developing, but they still do not meet all our needs and we import cables.

I spoke briefly at the staff meeting and opened three new telephone centers for Yazd, Ashkazar and Raraj with eight hundred thousand numbers. We went to Islamic Azad University, Yazd branch. It is a huge unit with more than sixty thousand square meters of building and five thousand students. We visited two laboratories and a computer center and I responded to the students' expressions. We went to Shahid Beheshti Square and saw the water supply plan plaque

I took Zayandeh Rood]; It is the wisdom of the Yazdis who solidified the plan!

We went to the governor's office. Mr. [Alireza] Moiri came. He explained the proposal to buy oil in the form of pre-sale that he had followed. I told him to follow up. I participated in the meeting of the administrative council of the province. [Mr. Ali Hamidia], the governor reported and raised the demands. I also gave them a short talk. We had dinner with a large number of people from the city. I wrote down the memories and slept late.