Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi – May 14, 1997

First, Mr. [Burhanuddin] Rabbani, the wandering president of Afghanistan, came. They talked about ways to solve the problem of Afghanistan. Mr. Nawaz Sharif, the Prime Minister of Pakistan, came. He said that in talks with the Indian prime minister, he was assured that the Indians would not give up on the Kashmir issue and that the problem between India and Pakistan would not be resolved without resolving the Kashmir issue. He demanded that the negotiations be privatized and that Iran deposit part of its foreign exchange reserves in Pakistani banks to solve its foreign exchange problems; I said I would check. I asked him to stop the sectarian killings and assassinations and help bring peace to Afghanistan.

Mr. [Nursultan] Nazarbayev, the president of Kazakhstan, came. We ate breakfast together. They talked about buying phosphate and wheat, exchanging oil and giving credit for the construction of their capital. Then we held a private meeting at his request. "[Mr. Helmut Kohl], the German chancellor, who was in Almaty four days ago, sent him to convey his message to me and said that he was against the Mykonos court and now asks me to send a special representative to him to find a solution," he said. He quoted [French President] Jacques Chirac as saying that he intends to expand his cooperation with Iran and brought [US President Bill] Clinton's message that he wants to resolve the US-Iran problem.

We went to the echo meeting. It was 11:30 pm and in the presence of the crowd and journalists, Demiral and Niazov and I signed an agreement to establish a gas pipeline from Turkmenistan through Iran to Turkey, which surprised the audience given the discussions of the meeting. In the questions of reporters, I was asked and I explained. On the Afghanistan issue, Mr. [Islam] Karimov criticized Pakistan's support for the Taliban. The expression of sympathy for Iran over the Qainat earthquake was very broad.

We immediately went to the airport and flew to Iran escorted by Mr. Niazov. We sat for a while at the airport after the welcome. I went to my office. I attended a meeting of the government delegation in the evening. By nine o'clock in the evening, I finished my backlog and came home.