Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi – August 6, 1989

I did the office work until nine o'clock in the morning and gave instructions to the officials to prepare the meeting of the Assembly of Experts. Mr. [Ebrahim] Amini came. There was a consultation about the quality of holding the expert meeting. Before the meeting, we held a meeting with other members of the Board of Directors in the Parliament Hall and prepared the program. There was concern that due to the short time after the announcement, the necessary quorum would not be reached to make the meeting official, which luckily it was. 64 people attended. The board of directors was elected. We kept the same former members. I became the first vice president with 62 votes, and Mr. Meshkini became the president with 60 votes, and Mr. Amini became the second vice president with 54 votes, and Mr. [Syedhasan] Taheri [Khorramabadi] and [Mohammed] Momen became the secretary.

The agenda was to examine the issue of leadership with regard to the amendment of the constitution, and the changes to the constitution were explained. Some believed that there is no need to re-vote and that the leadership of Ayatollah Khamenei continues; But because we had clarified in the last vote that the leadership is temporary and after the amendment of the law, the experts will vote again, so we voted. Sixty votes were in favor and four did not vote. The number of positive votes is similar to the previous vote, but they said that they did not vote because they did not see the need to vote. The experts were the guests of the parliament. Generally, they are happy and hopeful about the situation with Mr. Khamenei's leadership and my presidency. I adjusted the news and gave it to the media.

In the evening [Mr. Yadullah Eslami] representative of Baft and Mr. [Hossein] Kamali came. They were working on cabinet issues. Mr. Abdullah Nouri came. It was discussed about the Ministry of Information and other affairs of the cabinet. Mr. [Assadullah] Bayat came and spoke for the agenda of the parliament and the cabinet. We went to meet the leadership with other expert members. Mr. Meshkini spoke and Mr. Khamenei said something in response.

There, we discussed with Dr. Rouhani about the Ministry of Intelligence and the General Staff and the issues of the army, etc. Mr. [Ahmed] Jannati, [Mohammed] Momin, [Syed Hassan] Taheri and [Vaez] Tabasi came. They told about the problems of [Mr. Ali Akbar Mohtashmipour] the Minister of Interior and demanded that he be removed.

At night, we had a meeting with the leadership that lasted until half past ten. We negotiated and made decisions about the cabinet, the army and the IRGC, foreign and economic policy. The meetings are useful and there is complete understanding. A decision was made about the judiciary and the Guardian Council.