Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi - June 24, 2001 - Important Report from Amir Tehrani, Deputy for Parliamentary Affairs at the Ministry of Intelligence, on the Situation of the Sixth Parliament

Meeting with Alireza Mahjoub, Secretary-General of the House of Labor, after his election to the parliament in the by-elections, with Hashemi.

Consultative meeting with Gholamreza Heydari, former representative of Tafresh in the parliament.

Important report from Amir Tehrani, the then Deputy for Parliamentary Affairs at the Ministry of Intelligence, on the situation of the Sixth Parliament, especially after the arrest of Hosein Luqmanian, and his astonishment at Ayatollah Khamenei's retreat from his previous position and acceptance of Sheikh Mahdi Karrubi’s proposal for investigation into IRIB. However, in a separate note, I previously mentioned that although Ayatollah Khamenei agreed to this proposal considering the circumstances, ultimately, upon referring the investigation report to the judiciary, the investigating judge in the First Branch of the Government Employees' Prosecutor's Office issued a non-prosecution order.

Meeting with managers of the non-governmental aviation sector and complaints by Ali Abedzadeh, the then Managing Director of Iran Aseman Airlines, regarding the verdict of the special court concerning the plane crash in Isfahan, presided over by Sheikh Abdolkarim Rezvani against him.

Full Text of the Daily Entry:

Mr. [Alireza] Mahjoub, the head of the House of Labor, came to visit. He has been elected from Tehran in the by-elections for the parliament. He expressed his regret that my withdrawal had paved the way for him, stating that the parliament and the country are grateful to me.

He expressed concern about the rise in unemployment and called the recession dangerous, stating that the government's claim of creating 450,000 jobs in 1999 is not true; fewer than 200,000 jobs have been created, and one million has been added to the unemployed. He claims that each year, about 1.2 million new job seekers enter the market, while the government states the figure is 750,000 annually. He proposed some solutions for creating employment and criticized the excessive election expenses of the reformists in the [presidential] election, stating that they have printed over ten million posters and held more than six thousand sessions and meetings, with the expenses of celebrations and trips adding up. Recently, right-wing newspapers have also started criticizing the election advertising expenses of the reformists.

Mr. [Gholamreza] Heydari, former representative of Ashtian in the parliament, came to visit. He has become a university professor specializing in strategic management. He criticized the differences at high levels, stating that the duality in the country's top management is dangerous and needs to be resolved. The left has raised this issue after the elections.

Mr. [Amir] Tehrani, Deputy [of the] Ministry of Intelligence in [parliamentary] affairs came to visit and stated that the leftists in the parliament have organized a wide-ranging attack plan, part of which has already begun, including the issue of investigation and reform of the IRIB administration law, opposition to the condemnation of Mr. [Hosein] Luqmanian, the representative from Hamadan, and pursuing the chain murders. Recently, they have also brought a series of interrogations of the suspects in the chain murders to the parliament, primarily to weaken the leadership, and their victory celebration slogans in many places, particularly in Ilam, have been against the leadership. He expressed astonishment at the leadership's retreat on the issue of the IRIB investigation.

In the afternoon, the managers of non-governmental airline companies came to visit. They complained about the discrimination between them and the state airline and sought solutions, stating that they are incurring losses and it is unsustainable. Mr. [Ali] Abedzadeh, [Managing Director of Iran Aseman Airlines], complained about the verdict of the Isfahan court regarding the plane crash.

With the dissolution of the Islamic Virtue Party by the court, significant criticism has been directed at Turkey; it is the largest opposition party and has over 100 representatives in parliament. Ariel Sharon, [Prime Minister of Israel], has given Yasser Arafat, [Chairman of the Palestinian Authority], 24 hours to arrest a group of Palestinian militant leaders.