Akbar Hashemi's Memoirs - January 1

Full text of the daily:

[Messrs. Yousef Hamedani-Kohen, Harun Yeshayaei, Ebrahim Baral, Mansour Sharim, Maurice Motamet, Rahmatullah Rafi, Jahangir Javaheri, Feyzollah Saketkho, Edmond Moalemi, Arash Abai and Ms. Farangis Hasidim and Hamida Masjedi] The leaders of the Jewish community came. They said that before the revolution, there were about 100,000 Jews in Iran and now there are about 24,000 left.

They claimed that the Palestinian embassy was the property of the [Jewish] community, which they had taken and given to Palestine; because before the revolution, it had become the place of the Israeli representative office. They complained about the bad words that are being spoken in some newspapers [about Jews] and said that they are against Zionism. They wrote a letter about my recent sermon in Friday prayers about Christian Zionism, which I had replied to; they thanked me.

One of them was a woman named "Masjidi"; I asked her why she had this surname. She said that her grandfather had built a mosque in Kashan and was famous for this title. They said that some Jews convert to Islam for the sake of inheritance and abuse the courts. I said that we differentiate between Zionists and non-Zionist Jews and that their rights are respected. I asked them to declare that they had waived their right to the Palestinian embassy building in favor of the Palestinians. I asked their rabbi [Mr. Yousef Hamedani Kohan, the leader and religious authority of Iranian Jews] religious questions; especially about the Talmud [= the Jewish holy book].

Mr. [Habibollah] Askarovaladi, [Secretary-General of the Islamic Coalition Party] came. He gave a report on the status of the Coalition Party and said that they have about five thousand members, 700 of whom are students, and that they have branches in all provinces and some cities, and an annual expenditure of about 400 million tomans, which is mainly financed by members’ fees and donations.

He consulted about running candidates in the [Islamic city and village] council elections. I said that apparently they do not have enough votes, unless the people themselves vote at the polling station. He said that he had met with Mr. Khatami, [the President], and mentioned that he had unhealthy people around him and criticized Mr. [Mehdi] Karroubi, [the Speaker of the Parliament] for describing the sentence [of Hashem] Aghajari as a “disgraceful verdict.” He asked me to help prevent political unrest and had some questions about the future.

Mr. Ali Larijani, [the head of the Iranian Broadcasting Organization] came. He said, the reform government has reached a deadlock and cannot fulfill its promises, and Mr. [Mohammad] Sattarifar, the head of the Management and Planning Organization, has announced that the budget is untenable and wants to step aside, and perhaps the bill [on dual elections and presidential powers] is a way to escape the deadlock. He said, there is no other way but for you to step in and save the country from the crisis. I said, think of someone else. I suggested that they make a satirical series about America’s treatment of people from other countries residing in the United States, including Iranians, Afghans, and Iraqis.

In the evening, [Messrs. Touraj Dehghani Zanganeh, Ganjjoyi, and Nikayin], the officials of the Republican Nest, came. They consulted on the layout of the VIP plane they had recently purchased. The Airbus is an advanced one that the Sultan of Brunei bought and decided to sell and Iran bought.

At the insistence of Hans Blix, [the chief of the UN weapons inspectors], the US today provided the inspectors with information about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction, and [US Secretary of State] [Colin] Powell has spoken frankly with complete impudence about the inevitability of war with Iraq and then war with Libya and others and the change of many governments in the region. In Afghanistan, three consecutive explosions shook the city of Jalalabad and the water of the Helmand River has once again reached Zabul; due to heavy rainfall. It was announced that the German helicopter that was shot down yesterday fell on people’s houses and killed two Afghan children.

The Gulf Cooperation Council summit was held in Qatar, but the leaders of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, and Bahrain did not attend due to Qatar's cooperation with Israel.