Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi – February 12, 1991

It snowed last night and today. The weather is getting colder. At half past eight in the morning, we went to the airport with Efat, Mehdi, Fereshte, Yaser and Mohsen. Yasir wanted to go to Isfahan with his friends; I told him to come with us.

We flew to Kish Island around ten o'clock. We entered Kish at half past eleven. We went to the pavilion. The weather is pleasant. I walked a little on the beach. Mr. [Mohsen] Mehralizadeh, [Head of Kish Civil Organization] and Kish officials explained; They are satisfied with the progress of the work. After prayer, lunch and rest, I read the reports.

In the evening, we visited the gas power plant under construction with a capacity of 70 megawatts and a small power plant in operation with a capacity of 10 megawatts. The power plant under construction will meet the needs of a large population that can be predicted in the coming years. The French were one month late in delivering it.

We also visited the desalination plant under construction. Before the revolution, Israel built five desalination units, each with a nominal capacity of two thousand cubic meters. Due to the severance of our relations with Israel and a little need, they have gradually become inactive. He was not an expert in repair and spare parts. Recently, the island itself has opened them for repair and they claim that it is a simple system that is not difficult to repair and even their construction is possible in the country.

Fortunately, they have also operated one unit, which is a good reason for the validity of their claim; They said that their product water, with investment calculation, is 350 Tomans per cubic meter. I calculated, it turned out to be much less than these; It was decided to make a more accurate calculation.

It seems that water and electricity on the island, which was a major problem, will be provided soon. We visited the water storage pool that has a capacity of 20,000 cubic meters. It seems that they have set an expensive ceiling for it; It could have been cheaper. We visited open-air cinema on the island, which has a seating capacity of 350 people. We toured a part of the island by car. I got the domestic and foreign news; It is not important news.

I walked on the beach at night. The weather is cold. Mr. [Mohammed Reza] Yazdan Panah, the former official of Jazeera [Omran Organization] came. They talked about Chabahar Free Zone. It has already been said that he will accept the responsibility there; He is very interested, but we don't have the budget and he offers two hundred million tomans of credit. Mr. [Sidkamal] Kharazi, [Permanent Representative of Iran to the United Nations], called from New York and said that he was meeting with [Mr. Xavier Perez Dekoyar], the [United Nations] Secretary General; He asked for guidance.