Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi – September 14, 1993

In the news, the agreement between PLO and Israel is still at the top in the White House. I went from home to the IRGC headquarters to participate in the meeting of IRGC commanders. Mr. [Mohsen] Rezaei, [Commander-in-Chief of the IRGC] welcomed me and I gave a detailed speech and strongly condemned the PLO-Israel agreement.

I was in my office at half past ten in the morning. Mr. [Mortaza] Alweiri, [Secretary of the Supreme Council of Free Zones] came. He explained about the Parliament's resolution on free zones, which was recently approved by the Guardian Council; It has almost all our demands, except for the division of Qeshm Island into free and non-free, which may disturb the work.

A veteran came with a person who works in foreign exchange transactions and said that they know a wide network of brokers and smugglers who are ready to cooperate to discover and prevent their activities. I told the Ministry of Information to use it.

Mr. [Mohammed Mohammadi] Ray Shahri, [representative of the religious jurist in Hajj] came. He is worried about the status of Hajj and Umrah and the strictness of the Saudis. We decided to take action. He asked for help for the reform plan around the shrine of Abdul Azim (PBUH) and reported on the issue of the trials of the Salam newspaper official and the possible punishments. I told them not to be strict.

Dr. [Hasan] Habibi came for current work. We went together to see the Marble Palace, which is being renovated to preserve historical monuments. In the evening, Mr. [Mahmoud] Vaezi asked for permission to make a phone call with Mr. [Boris] Yeltsin and [Helmut] Kohl, the President of Russia and the Chancellor of Germany, and Mr. Velayati to send a representative to Syria to learn about the progress of their future plans.

[Mr. Seyed Hossein Marashi], the governor of Kerman came. He wanted to make sure it was permanent. I said that if he wants, he can stay. The head of "Kia" company came from South Korea. He explained about the cars manufactured by his company, which is Pride and is also assembled in Iran under the names of Nasim and Saba. He said that they produce 650,000 cars a year, and it will soon reach one million cars, and the domestic consumption of Korea is 1,400,000 cars a year. He gifted ten ambulances to Iran and said that 300 people are training specialized workforce for us. We warmed up with them.