Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi – January 22, 1996

[It is the first of Ramadan.] I woke up at four in the morning, with the alarm clock, to eat suhoor. I woke up others at five o'clock. At half past six, I slept after Suhoor and prayers. I reached my office at half past eight.

Our ambassador came to Ireland. While reporting, he asked not to change the place of service and said about the good religiosity of the Irish people and influence in America, due to the presence of more than 40 million Irish people in that country. Mr. [Syed Mohammad Naqi] Shahrokhi, representative of the leadership in Bangladesh came. He told me about the important impact of my trip there and asked for help to work better. Sadegh Kharazi [Ambassador and Deputy Permanent Representative of Iran to the United Nations] came. expressed readiness for a more active job; He had recently been seriously ill.

We went to [Mehrabad] airport to welcome [Mr. Safar Murad Niyazov], the President of Turkmenistan. The ceremony of welcoming and interviewing both of us, introducing our companions and moving to Saadabad was done. On the way he talked more about Russia and [Boris] Yeltsin and greeted Yeltsin and Primakov. He said that the Russians are determined to strengthen cooperation with Iran, and in the meeting of the heads of the Commonwealth of Nations, Yeltsin defended the policy of cooperation with Iran and criticized the heads of Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine for not being honest with Russia in front of the United States. Yeltsin is better than before and has high hopes of winning the presidential elections. It was decided that the heads of the Commonwealth should make a statement in favor of him. He said that the Russian Duma, which is under the influence of communists, has overthrown two important ministers of Yeltsin and is now under pressure to remove the Russian Prime Minister.

In the evening, part of the time was spent in private negotiations. He said that in Tajikistan, Russia considers Mr. [Ima Ali] Rahmanov incapable and has a good middle ground with Mr. [Syed Abdullah] Nouri, but does not accept Mr. [Akbar] Turjanzadeh. Soon they will appoint advisers for Rahmon F. and give him a deadline of six months to bring peace to a place. They do not have a clear policy about Afghanistan. Yeltsin is trying to solve the problem of Abkhazia and Karabakh before the elections. He said that they have more than one billion dollars in foreign exchange reserves and will soon open a currency exchange.

In the official negotiations, we talked about the development of cooperation and we resolved the issue of export insurance rates and the [airline] company "Eco Air". He is very happy to approve the neutrality of his country. I came home after dinner. A group of relatives were here.