Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi – January 4, 1998

A group of people involved in the conference on removing obstacles to tourism came. A group of scholars, such as Mr. [Ali] Devani, [Syed Ali] Qazi Askar, [Abdul Majid] Maadikhah, [Mohammed Ali] Abhari, [Mahmoud] Rastgari and... are among them. Mr. Rostagari spoke from the crowd; He read the text and explained that they asked the scholars to discuss it as one of the issues. I also talked about the cultural, economic and welfare importance of tourism, currency exchange, job creation and cultural exchange, etc. and promised support.

Mr. Fallah, the former special deputy [Ministry] of Information, came. He explained the changes in the ministry, which are not many. He thinks that it was done under the pressure of Mr. Khatami; Including bringing Mr. [Hossamuddin] Ashna, the son-in-law of Mr. Dori [Najafabadi, Minister of Information], in his place.

Mr. [Reza] Amrullahi came. He gave explanations about Allameh Tabatabai University [Khwaja Nasiruddin Tusi]. He recently became the head there. He complained about the removal of quality personnel in the Nuclear Energy Organization and invited me to visit the university. He insisted on [participating in mid-term elections and] my going to the parliament and said, this matter was emphasized in the meeting of the [party] agents.

Before noon, Mr. [Abd al-Hossein] Mouazi came. He appreciated my services and said the importance of infrastructural works and the training of competent managers and considered it important to support the managers and complained about the misbehavior with the Tehran Municipality and mentioned the tourism development program.

In the evening, Dr. [Hasan] Rouhani, [the head of the Strategic Research Center of the Expediency Council] came. We discussed about activating the strategic research center. They talked about America's message and its response, as well as Ayatollah Montazeri's lesson after Ramadan, which he thinks the scholars want to teach him, and there is a possibility that he will raise issues of the past in the lesson.

I was a guest of Ayatollah Khamenei at the Iftar. Regarding the proposal of Mr. [Mustafa] Pourmohammadi, regarding the sensitive weapons and the negative propaganda of the Salam newspaper, regarding the Faqih and my trip to Mecca, and the purchase of gas from Turkmenistan, and the issue of negotiations with the United States, which is a current issue these days, and he is seriously opposed to the previous one, and they told Mr. Khatami to clearly separate the account of the American government from the American people in his interview, and they made their statements on Friday in the same direction, and they feel a lot of publicity from CNN [news network] We have negotiated that there is a plan.