Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi – June 18, 1997

[Mr. Ishaq Jahangiri], the governor of Isfahan came. He expressed his happiness with the results of the [presidential] election and asked me to support Mr. Khatami. He believes that he will be in trouble. [Mr. Mohammadreza Rahimi], the governor of Kurdistan came. He defended himself and gave a description of his construction services for Kurdistan; He is right. He denied the accusation of supporting Mr. Natiq [Nouri] in the elections and insisted on awarding the badge proposed by the Ministry of Interior. He brought the prepared books about my trip [to Kurdistan].

[Mr. Mohammad Sadiq Fayaz], our new ambassador came to Bangladesh and got an opinion for his work policy. Mr. [Mohammed Mohammadi] Ray Shahri came. He is upset with the result of the [presidential] election and is strongly complaining about the way Mr. Natiq's faction [Nouri] is campaigning and spending money on all spiritual figures and institutions and... He applied for the Faculty of Hadith. He said, before the election, he had a dream that he was interested in marrying a girl and someone told him that this girl will get married, but it will not be yours. He himself explained that he will not win the election. He is very angry with the radio and said that the spirit of people like Mr. [Abdullah] Javadi Amoli and [Mohsen] Qaraati who were forced to support Mr. Natiq [Noori] is bad.

We had a meeting for the waterway between the Caspian and the Persian Gulf. Jihad [construction] managers reported, but studies are incomplete; They cannot handle the economic question of the plan. In the evening, we had a meeting of the government board with approvals, including the statutes of the Shahid Foundation.

Then Abdul Halim Khaddam, [Vice President] and Farouk al-Shara, [Syrian Foreign Minister] came and brought Hafez Assad's message. They explained about the relations with Iraq and asked about my perception of Türkiye's policy regarding Iraq and Israel. It was decided to coordinate with other Arab countries to put pressure on Türkiye to withdraw from cooperation with Israel. Dr. Velayati, [Minister of Foreign Affairs], came to America and Russia for a farewell trip.