Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi – April 29, 1996

The lords of the media came on the occasion of the press festival. Mr. [Mustafa] Mirslim, [Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance] and [Ali Akbar] Ash'ari, [Deputy Press Minister of Guidance], reported and I also spoke; I made some remarks about the weaknesses of the media and reminded them of their strengths, and then I answered their many questions.

Messrs. [Bijan Namdar] Zanganeh, [Minister of Energy] and [Ali] Karimi [Quddosi, Deputy Director General] came from Astan Quds [Razavi]. There was talk about our joint dam with Turkmenistan on Harirud, which is supposed to be built in the ceremony of connecting the railway line. Astan Quds proposed to build the dam at his own expense and use its water in Ferkhs land, which is completely endowed. In terms of expenses, it is at the expense of the government, because even if it is built at the expense of the government, its consumption is in the same lands, and the amount that should be allocated for Mashhad's drinking water is given anyway. The issue was that since the dam is a border and joint project, there is a preference for the government to be a party to the contract, and it is not clear that the Turkmens are willing to be a party to Astan Quds.

In the evening, Dr. Velayati [Minister of Foreign Affairs] came. He gave a report on the issues of Lebanon. The role of Iran, despite the fact that the United States wanted to prevent our presence in the issues of war and peace in Lebanon, is very prominent and was inevitably accepted, and even Iran caused France and Russia to become more serious about their presence and they are also grateful. At the same time, we strengthened Syria and Hezbollah.

In the meeting of the government board, we had several resolutions. I returned to my office before the end of the meeting. Mr. [Sheikh Abdullah] Nazari, one of the Mazandaran scholars, and his son-in-law, Mr. [Sheikh Mofid] Rohani [Zadeh], the acting imam of the city, came and complained that they want to depose the imam of Juma. They asked me to tell the governor [of Mazandaran] and the [Ministry] of Information to pay attention to his opinion on the issues of the province. I told the leader at night; We agreed to give a deadline.

Mr. [Mohsen] Nurbakhsh, [CEO of Central Bank] came. He gave a report on the currency situation and his trip to the United States and expressed his satisfaction with the restoration of Iran's credit by paying the installments of the debts and expressed his concern about the pressures on the Speaker of the Parliament and asked us to strengthen Mr. [Hasan] Rouhani.

I was the guest of the leader. We talked about the establishment of parties. It turned out that there are conditions for the emergence of strong parties in Iran. It was decided not to prohibit, nor to encourage and help; If those with the same conditions want to have a party, they can do so. Regarding the creation of a nuclear power plant in Jazmurian with the cooperation of China, due to the small possibility of an earthquake and the presence of water and a large area without inhabitants, it was discussed and agreed; It was supposed to be in Bushehr before. We talked about the insidious actions that are being taken to create division between me and them, especially during the recent elections and the performance of some members of IRGC and Basij. It was decided to deal with them and stop some of the evil press from doing evil.