Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi – April 21, 1999

The Expediency Council held a meeting. We approved several more provisions of the general policies of the Third Development Plan. After the meeting, Mr. [Seyyed Mohammad] Khatami, [President], came to my office and spoke about possible candidates to head the Judiciary after Mr. [Mohammad] Yazdi. He preferred the appointment of people such as Mr. [Seyyed Mohammad Mousavi] Khoiniha, Mr. [Seyyed Kazem] Noormofidi, or Mr. [Seyyed Mostafa] Mohaqqeq Damad, followed, as second choices, by people such as Mr. [Seyyed Hassan] Taheri-Khorramabadi or Seyyed Mahmoud Hashemi [Shahroudi]. Regarding his remarks at the gathering of provincial governors, he said that he had made those statements because of the mischief being directed against him and the pressure on the press. He expressed confidence that, in the next parliamentary elections, the faction supporting the government would defeat the conservatives, even if the Guardian Council disqualified some of their candidates.

He said they had decided to visit Saudi Arabia, as well as Syria and Qatar, although Saud al-Faisal, [Saudi Foreign Minister], had once again raised the issue of the Khobar Towers bombing during his meeting with Mr. Khatami. Previously, when Prince Abdullah, [Saudi Crown Prince], had raised the same issue with the Leader, Mr. Khatami had been barred from traveling to Saudi Arabia. Mr. Khatami said that through their misguided actions, they had turned Faezeh into a heroine.

At noon, Yasser came. We discussed and decided on the design for the cover of my 1360 [1981] memoirs [Crossing the Crisis]. In the afternoon, Mr. Qasem Soleimani, [Commander of the Quds Force], came. He said that today the Shiites had retaken the city of Bamyan from the Taliban, and that our humanitarian aid for displaced Kosovars, along with aid for some other needs, had been sent. He said that he did not agree with Yugoslavia, the only power standing against NATO, being defeated. He added that because Kosovo is mountainous, it was unlikely that NATO would deploy ground forces, while at the same time NATO did not favor the people of Kosovo being armed.

Mr. [Ali] Razini, [Head of the Tehran Province Justice Department], came to thank me for the message I had sent when he was wounded and for sending a representative to visit him. He had suggestions regarding the [leadership of the] Judiciary. We also discussed Faezeh and the Zan newspaper. I said that the Judiciary had treated her unjustly, and I cited several instances of misconduct in the previous trial and this one, particularly the issue being raised during Friday prayers by Mr. [Mohammad] Yazdi, which the Leader also considered inappropriate.

Among today’s news, the intensification of the war in Serbia, increased fighting along the borders of Albania, Montenegro, and Croatia, and the killing of a large number of American students by armed individuals have attracted attention, the latter being cited as an example of moral and social corruption in America. In the domestic news, the sentencing of Mr. [Mohsen] Kadivar to a year and a half in prison [on charges of propaganda against the system and disturbing public opinion], the announced impeachment of Mr. [Ataollah] Mohajerani, Minister of [Culture and] Islamic Guidance, the announcement that Mr. [Gholamhossein] Karbaschi had been barred from holding government positions, and the very sharp attack by [Mr. Ahmad Pishbin], representative of Bafq in Parliament, on Mr. Khatami’s policies and performance all indicate the intensity of pressure being exerted by the conservatives on the government and have received extensive coverage in the domestic and foreign media.