Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi - November 25, 2001 Part 1

Issa Kalantari's consultative visit to the development of the activities of the Farmer's House
Majdi Ahmed Al-Dhafiri, Kuwait's new ambassador to Tehran, meets
Ali Larijani's report to Hashemi on Seyyed Mohammad Khatami's reaction at the government meeting on the summoning of Bijan Namdar Zanganeh
Bijan Namdar Zanganeh consulted with Hashemi to summon himself to court and quoted Seyyed Mohammad Khatami's reaction to the summons
Full text of the diary:
[Mr. Majdi Ahmed Al-Dhafiri], the new ambassador of Kuwait, came and said that the condition of the Emir of Kuwait is improving and he has been transferred home. After a few days, he will return to Kuwait from London, and the crown prince is doing well. He talked about the importance of Iran's position in terms of geography, resources and people, and we discussed cooperation in oil, gas, water, and the issues of Iraq and Palestine. Given the age of the power of the emir and the crown prince, it seems that the management of the country will be handed over to the next generation.  
Dr. [Issa] Kalantari, [former Minister of Agriculture] and Engineer [Mehdi] Mofidi came. They complained about the government's lack of attention to the Khuzestan sugarcane project. The problems that arose in terms of non-payment of bank credits of the project in the current year and caused the recession, more than 7,000 contractors have lost their jobs and 50 billion tomans of contractors' creditors from the project have been raised, some of them are at risk of bankruptcy. They expect the Minister [of Agricultural Jihad] and the President to pay attention to this important national project as they did during the construction period, and they believe that some people are sabotaging the project in Khuzestan, and the Arab representative of Ahvaz, quoting the Majlis Research Center, falsely reported the suspension of the project to the media and thanked me for remembering me in the last Friday prayer. Mr. Kalantari said that the "House of Farmers" is being formed all over the country and so far more than 100,000 people have joined and paid tuition fees.

In the evening, Mr. [Ali] Larijani came to the meeting of the Expediency Council and explained the Commission's decision, which rejected the opinion of the Parliament and added something against the Parliament's wishes, and said, "Today, Mr. Khatami, [the President], in a meeting of the Cabinet, was angry about the summoning of [Bijan Namdar] Zanganeh, the Minister of Oil, to the court and said that this is a war centered on the Judiciary against the government. Mr. Zanganeh, knowing of the Supreme Leader's opinion opposing the summoning of the ministers, informed Mr. [Seyyed Mahmoud Hashemi] Shahroudi, [Head of the Judiciary], that he was not willing to go to court.  
Mr. Zanganeh [the Minister of Oil] and Mehdi [the CEO of the Fuel Consumption Optimization Organization] came. Mr. Zanganeh said that after receiving the summons, he went to the Supreme Leader's office and said that contrary to paragraph 7 of the agreement, judicial action had been taken in the presence of the Supreme Leader, without coordination with the government, and that the Supreme Leader had said that something had been done and that it should not have happened, and for this reason, he had written a letter to Mr. Shahroudi and said that he would not go to court, and he brought me the copy and said, "Mr. Khatami, in the margin of the copy, with harsh words against the Judiciary." The judiciary sent it to the Supreme Leader, and Mr. Shahroudi replied that it is preferable for him to go to court and give an explanation, but he is determined not to go.