Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi – November 28, 1997

We went to the leader's office for the Eid Mu'baat ceremony. Mr. [Syed Mohammad] Khatami, [President], congratulated and the leadership had a short talk; No specific issue was raised. I also went to the office. A group of MPs came to congratulate Eid. We went to Friday prayer. I delivered a sermon on the mission and a sermon on the issues of the day, which spent most of the time on current issues and disputes related to the authority of the jurist. I told the history and details of how Ayatollah Montazeri was deposed and Ayatollah Khamenei was installed, and that Ayatollah Khamenei was not willing and it was imposed, and the same is true of authority.

At noon, the children were gathered. In the evening of the marriage ceremony of Ahmad's brother's daughter with Shahriar Sedaghatzadeh. Mr. [Sidmehdi] Imam Jamarani also came to accept the marriage. The groom's family looks warm and noble.

I went home at night. Mr. Khatami, [President], we talked about the issues of Ayatollah Montazeri and the summit and the issue of Mr. Karbaschi and the managers of Tehran Municipality, all three of which have created problems for Mr. Khatami's government. He said, I wonder how you have been able to spend eight years with such problems that usually have their roots in the office. We talked a little about solutions to problems.

Mr. Khatami consulted about the position of first deputy for Mr. Karbaschi, in case of accepting the resignation of Dr. Habibi, that he insists on resigning. He said, after the leadership office insisted on the leadership's speech at the conference after Malik [Hasan, King of the Maghreb] and handing over the presidency to Iran, he sent a message to them that in this case Dr. Velayati would lead the conference. Because he thinks that this was suggested by Dr. Velayati, despite the fact that in the past, according to Mr. [Mohammed Javad] Zarif, he believed that the leadership should not attend the meeting and that the guests should go to his service.

At night, Dr. Mohammad's nephew came. We talked about the situation of hospitals and doctors. In the reports, the multitude of comments from the world's news circles are focused on the controversial issues of Iran and Iraq regarding the inspectors' visit to Saddam's palaces, which he said, meaning the visit of the diplomats and officials of the countries, and not the inspectors. Efat went to the party of the wife of [Mr. Ali Akbar Natiq Nouri], Speaker of the Parliament, for the wife of [Mr. Nabih Bari], Speaker of the Lebanese Parliament.