Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi – May 4, 1997

For the conference of domestic and foreign Iranian thinkers, we went from home to the radio and television conference center. Dr. [Iraj] Fadel and Dr. [Kamal] Kharazi reported, and Dr. [Iraj] Yazdan Bakhsh, the head of the Iranian Physicians Association in Europe, and Professor [Fazllullah] Reza gave a speech and mentioned with admiration Iran's construction progress after the war and asked us to treat Iranians living abroad with forgiveness and compassion. They presented me with a plaque as a thank you. I gave a detailed speech and relied on the real independence of Iran and presented a list of the important works of the revolution from the political, cultural, scientific and technical dimensions. It seems that they were deeply affected; Especially since they had visited important construction works for several days. About two hundred people have come from abroad.

I went to my office. I did the work. [Mr. Li Lanqing], Vice Premier of China came. Previously, Akhvi Mohammad, [executive vice president] who is the head of the joint commission, gave a report on the negotiations and agreements and their refusal to build the nuclear power plant. The negotiations were about the development of cooperation in the sectors of oil and gas, industries and the sea. Their excuse for not building the power plant is that they have to get a part of it from France and Canada and they don't hope that they will agree under the existing conditions, but they had no excuse for leaving the work of the Isfahan nuclear facility incomplete, which was supposed to be followed up. In order to deal with Europe, we preferred not to consider this as an obstacle to other collaborations in the current situation.

[Mr. Gholamreza Aghazadeh], the oil minister came. He expressed concern about the danger of Europe and America coordinating against Iran. It was decided to develop cooperation with China and Russia as well. In the evening, Mr. [Syed Mohammad] Mousavi Khoyiniha, [Mahdi] Karroubi, [Mohsen] Nurbakhsh, [Gholamohsin] Karbaschi and [Hossein] Marashi came. They expressed concern about the leadership's talk about the elections yesterday and said that Mr. [Syed Mohammad] Khatami will resign and they will also withdraw. I advised them not to do that. I was supposed to present it with the leader and I presented it with the leader at night.

I went to Azadi Stadium to open the Congress of Martyrs of Tehran Province. A play, poetry, and a speech by the daughter, mother, and wife of the martyr and well-wisher Mr. [Mohsen] Rezaei, [Commander-in-Chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps], and a detailed speech by me, and then I returned.

Dr. Habibi, [first vice president] came. He thought that we should not participate in the assembly ceremony before the elections. I was the guest of the leader. I brought up the contents of [the meeting of] militant clerics. They completely deny that the talks are one-sided. It was decided to give time to Mr. Khatami who requested to meet and convince them. We discussed the issues of Europe, America, China, Russia, the community of teachers [Qom seminary], my trip, and the issue of Egypt.