Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi – August 23, 1997

The repair of the Mir [space] station by the occupants has caused the attention of observers and the crisis in southern Lebanon. I saw the reports until half past ten in the morning. Then, there was a meeting of the Expediency Council, where two articles of the [Combating Drug Trafficking] Law were amended. After the meeting, we talked with Dr. [Hasan] Rouhani about accepting his continued work in the Supreme Council of National Security, and I encouraged him to stay; And with Dr. Habibi as his successor as secretary of the assembly.

In the afternoon, Mohsen came and said that the government is pursuing him to accept a job that he is not willing to accept. It was decided to accept as the chairman of the board of directors of Metro Company. He has been a member of the board of directors for four years.

In the evening, Mr. [Mortaza] Alveeri came. Mr. Khatami expressed his concern about the composition of the economic headquarters and said that a combination of different groups have contributed. He said, he was informed that Mr. Khatami gave his name to the leader of the program and budget organization and they rejected it, and he was upset because of this. I said I have not heard. He suggested that considering the acceptability of my thoughts and management methods among most of the knowledgeable forces of the country, it is good to form a party; I did not accept

Mr. [Gholamreza] Shafii, [Minister of Industries] came and thanked me for my support to the cooperatives and brought a beautiful statue - a flying eagle - from the cooperatives as a thank you and explained his plan for the Ministry of Industries; There is no new content.

Mr. Pourfalah, the special deputy of information, came. He revealed the new bulletins and contents and expressed his concern that the current management group of the [Intelligence] Ministry would be disintegrated due to the pressure of Mr. Khatami's entourage. He said that from Mr. Khatami's office, the election of Mr. Deri's office head was opposed and there is also pressure to replace him, [Mustafa] Pourmohammadi and Saeed Islami. from misusing the information available in the special deputy about the personalities and also from weakening the leadership due to the situation of his office and the resentment of a number of scholars and the right wing against him for being short in front of the left wing and the left wing's lack of loyalty to him and

He expressed concern about the plans they have for the election of experts and said that even Mr. Ray Shahri's group is deeply offended and has come close to the left wing.

Mr. [Reza] Amrollahi, [head of the Atomic Energy Organization] came. He is upset that Mr. Khatami does not want to give him a verdict, and he feels that the leadership disagreed. He asked me to help.