Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi – March 14, 1997

Mr. [Ali] Fallahian, [Information Minister] came. He gave informational reports and asked for more funds. Mr. [Gholamreza] Aghazadeh, [Minister of Oil] and Mehdi [Hashmi, CEO of Marine Facilities Engineering and Construction Company] came. Mr. Aghazadeh suggested that Mehdi take over the management of two companies that build marine structures of the Ministry of Oil and the responsibility of implementing the first phase of the South Pars gas project. I accepted They have made this decision because of Mahdi's success in the implementation of the Abu Dhar construction project and the concern about the delay of the South Pars project with the current management. They asked me to help in providing foreign currency credits, maritime and customs regulations so that they can complete the project faster; Both because of being in common with Qatar and because of the country's need for gas. Then, Mr. Aghazadeh complained about the pressure of the supervisory organizations on the managements, in which managements like Mr. [Ahmed] Rahgozar, do not want to stay.

Expediency Council had a meeting. We amended four articles of the anti-narcotics law. Fazeh came and asked for an opinion about the elections and the trip to Kuwait. We were supposed to go to Ardabil to fight the situation of earthquake victims. They informed from there that it is snowing heavily and it is not possible to sit in the airport and go to the area. We canceled the trip for the second time. Asr Salmani came for correction.

By six o'clock in the afternoon, I completed the work and came home. We had a little rain last night and today, but in some parts of the country, the rainfall is good. At the end of the night, they reported that the army C-130 plane, on the Dezful-Mashhad route, had a problem and apparently crashed, with more than eighty passengers and crew. I was sorry