Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi – November 18, 1997

After the morning prayer, as usual every day, I checked two verses from the first volume of the guide's commentary to correct the deficiencies for the third edition. We went for mountain climbing. We drove to Jamshidiyeh Park and from there we hiked to the third coffee house. We perceived the sunrise in the high altitudes. We also had tea and dates at Mohammad Agha's coffee house. We were supposed to go through the Golab Valley route, we chose this route due to the lack of time. This is the second time we are going this route.

I went to my office at nine in the morning. After the tasks were done, the meetings began. Mr. [Gholamreza] Aghazadeh, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization, came. He gave a report on the status and plans for enriching uranium to fuel power plants through three methods: heavy water, centrifuge and laser, and talked about the political issues of the day. With the expressions of concern about the situation that has arisen for the leadership, with the opposition of Mr. [Hossein Ali] Montazeri and Mr. [Ahmed] Azari [Qomi] and the statements of [Hossein] Vahid [Khorasani] and [Mirza Ali] Falsafi and Mr. Mirza Javad Tabrizi and the atmosphere of the universities that the work has reached a place, the space has been opened for liberals. And he also asked me to think about the state of the government, which he predicts will have serious problems in the future.

Mr. Abbas Maleki came and said about the need to address the country's economy, unemployment, and drug problems, and that Mr. [Syed Mohammad] Khatami's [President] interview last night did not meet the expectations of the people and was more like election speeches and promises; Mr. Aghazadeh also said the same. He also asked me to take action. He said, they have prepared the leader's speech for the conference of Islamic leaders and their proposal is to speak at the meeting and not at the dinner or the prayer ceremony, which is generally not acceptable to the government.

Akhvi Mohammad, [executive vice president] came. He is also worried about the consequences of Ayatollah Montazeri's work. The assembly budget was discussed. Dr. Habibi also asked me on the phone about the budget. I said, they should write according to their needs according to their own expertise. In the report of Mohammad and Aghazadeh, it was also stated that in the budget discussion, the price of gas and electricity will be added before the second program, which will cause problems.

In the evening, Mr. [Mahmoud] Mohammadi Iraqi, [Head of Islamic Propaganda Organization], [Mohammed] Jafari Gilani, [Head of Qom Islamic Propaganda Office] and Taha Hashemi, [Qom representative] came; Expressing concern about the situation that has arisen for leadership with the opposition of Ayatollah Montazeri. They consulted for a remedy and said that tomorrow the seminary of Qom will be closed to support the leadership and the students will gather and if it is not controlled, they may harm Ayatollah Montazeri. It was in the reports that Dr. [Ebrahim] Yazdi, [Secretary General of Azadi Movement] and [Ezzatullah] Sahabi and Mrs. Azam Taleghani prevented the implementation of the program today at Amir Kabir University.