Akbar Hashemi's Memoirs - September 2, 2002

Received a letter from Suleyman Demirel about Turkey's many problems, including about $300 billion in foreign and domestic debt and the terrible fall in the value of the lira, which is now 1.6 million lira to the dollar. They have 70 percent annual inflation and a tense political situation under pressure from Europe for human rights / criticism of Hashemi Shahroudi, from handing over billions of dollars to the IRGC to interfere in the market, which in practice leads to the entry of smuggled or unnecessary goods.

Full text of the daily:

A group of IRGC ground force medical personnel came and gave a report on their services in the war and after the war on the occasion of Medic's Day. I also spoke about the value of medical science and the history of medicine in Iran and the major and important medical work in the Sacred Defense and the IRGC medical department.

Mr. Alireza Salari, the Iranian ambassador to the UAE, came. He said that the issue of the islands [Abu Musa, Greater Tunb, and Lesser Tunb] is close to being resolved, but the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs is being strict.There are 3,600 companies registered by Iranians in the UAE, perhaps half of which are government organizations, and there are about 100,000 Iranians in the UAE.

Mr. [Firoz] Dolatabadi, the Iranian ambassador to Turkey, came. He brought a letter from Mr. Suleyman Demirel, the former President of Turkey, and he talked about the many problems Turkey has; including about $300 billion in foreign and domestic debt and the terrible fall in the value of the Turkish lira, which is now 1.6 million liras to the dollar. They have 70 percent annual inflation and the political situation is tense and under pressure from Europe for human rights.

In the evening, Mr. [Ibrahim] Derazgisu, our ambassador to Turkmenistan, came and said that the value of the Turkmen manat was rapidly declining and that now, on the free market, one dollar is traded for 20,000 manats, and [Safar Murad] Niyazov had become president for life, and America and Russia had supported Muradov, his staunch opponent.Mr. Mustafa Boroujerdi, our ambassador to the Vatican, came. He spoke about the financial, political, and administrative discipline of the Vatican, and about the sexual scandals of priests, and suggested that the Iranian clergy benefit from their systematic program and successful experience.

In the evening, there was a meeting of the heads of state in the parliament. They discussed the possible US attack on Iraq and the budget deficit of 20 trillion rials, the sale of three billion dollars in foreign exchange through the IRGC to control the foreign exchange market and secure the rial, the case of Mr. Majid Abbaspour, [Advisor to the President], the gradual lifting of the siege on Ayatollah Montazeri, and the disagreement between Mr. [Mohsen] Nourbakhsh, [Governor of the Central Bank], and [Tahmaseb] Mazaheri, [Minister of Economic Affairs and Finance].

Mr. [Mehdi] Karroubi, [Speaker of the Parliament], said that the approval of aid to Afghanistan was facing many problems. Finally, with our request, we dissuaded some of those who claimed to doubt the vote, and they fell short of the quorum.He said, "I told former hardliners like [Nasser] Qavami, [representative of Qazvin] and [Rejab Ali] Mazrouei, [representative of Isfahan], etc. on the rostrum of the parliament why you have changed the slogans of hardliners and extremist actions of the past one hundred and eighty degrees."

[Seyyed Mahmoud] Hashemi Shahroudi, [head of the judiciary] criticized the transfer of billions of dollars to the IRGC to interfere in the market, which practically leads to the import of smuggled or unnecessary goods. [President] [Seyyed Mohammad] Khatami, at first denied the transfer of such a huge amount, but we contacted Mr. Nourbakhsh and he confirmed it. It was decided to follow up on how these currencies were spent.

Mr. Khatami announced that it had finally been decided that [Saad bin Laden], the 21-year-old son of [Osama] bin Laden, [the leader of the al-Qaeda group], and his companions would be allowed to go to Pakistan because he did not agree to be handed over to Saudi Arabia.Uday, the son of Saddam [Hussein, President of Iraq], has claimed that Iran is supporting Jund al-Islam, which the United States considers to be part of al-Qaeda. The United States has announced that instead of American soldiers, State Department-trained agents will be assigned to protect [Hamid] Karzai, [the interim president of Afghanistan]!