Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi – December 3, 1997

At six o'clock, after morning prayer, we went to Darband for mountain climbing. We went to the heights of the Sarband road to the village of Pos Qala and returned back via the Pos Qala road. On the outskirts of the castle, there are many coffee houses and cafes. We met and greeted a large number of people and mountaineers on the way.

Around eighty families live behind the castle. The primary school has five classes, but the children go to Shemiran for middle school and high school, and it is difficult. They have to walk. The lift works only one day a week and students are taken for free. They demanded gas, bathroom, etc.

We went up a bit behind the castle on the way to Shirpola. We ran out of time and returned. We sat in a cafe and had eggs, honey and sour cream for breakfast. There were some mountaineers there and we paid for their breakfast. There were several students. They thanked me for my Friday sermon and openly criticized the leadership for the issues of windfall wealth and municipalities, which is a bad sign. A photographer artist told his situation.

On the way, we also met an army company that was taking soldiers to Shir Pella and a group of police forces that came from Mazandaran and Lorestan to help with Tehran's arrangements for the Islamic Conference of Leaders.

We arrived home at nine o'clock. Efat had left home to travel to Qom. My clothes were in the room and I didn't have a key. They informed Eft with a mobile phone. He returned home to open the room door; I reached my office at ten o'clock.

Mr. [Abbas] Maliki and Mehdi Nasiri, the editor of Sobh Monthly, came. Mr. Nasiri gave explanations for his extreme writings about the country's managers and issues, and I advised him and told him not to do any of these fruitless and harmful things. Recently, he has written harsh articles against Mr. [Syed Mohammad] Gharehi and Mr. [Bijan Namdar] Zanganeh.

Mr. Karimi came from the [Ministry of] Information. He expressed his concern about the possibility of confrontation like the left wing against the right wing leaders, due to the revenge of the Tehran municipality issue, and asked for a remedy. Dr. Ramadan, the brother of Martyr Fathi Shaghaqi and the leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad Organization, came and reported on the rise in popularity of Jihad among the Palestinians and said that in measuring the new public opinion by Fatah, Jihad was accepted by 12%, Hamas by 20%, and Fatah by 30%. While thanking Iran for its assistance, he asked Iran to increase its assistance.

In the evening, I gave an interview for the anniversary of the death of Haj Ahmad Agha. I came home at night. Efat returned from Qom and said, the Marashi brothers believe that the quality of the government's treatment of Ayatollah Montazeri's issue has ended in favor of Ayatollah Montazeri.

Mr. Hossein Marashi, [the representative of Kerman] came and said, the situation in the parliament is not good and the representatives do not have a clear line and are wandering. He asked me to go to the parliament; He said, two currents [left and right] and independents want this. He said that the leadership's reliance on the defense of the legal authority in the issue of Ayatollah Montazeri is a sign of weakness and need, and his threat had a bad effect on public opinion.