Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi – October 15, 1997

After the morning prayer, I went to the mountain. We went from Sohank village to Darabad peak. Then we came to Jihad Forestry [Construction]. The way back was steep; My knees are very tired. Then we came home by car through the side valley. I hiked a bit in Alborz ridge between Fashm valley and Darabad.

We went to the office. [Mr. Mohammad Reza Aref], Minister of Post, Telegraph and Telephone came. He gave the report of his plans and said that they will work more in the direction of deepening internal construction and research. The Minister of Energy, Mr. [Habibullah] Bebitar and his deputy, Mr. Engineer [Rasoul] Zargar, came. They gave the water, sewage and electricity report and asked me for more credit for water and dams.

Mr. Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah, Secretary General of Hizbollah Lebanon, came and praised Hezbollah's successes in Lebanon and its greater prestige after the martyrdom of his son and Israel's desperation in southern Lebanon, and said that they want to accept non-Shiite and non-Muslim volunteers for Jihad from now on. He said that it is unlikely that Israel will evacuate southern Lebanon.

In the evening, Mr. Nasser Nouri came and told about the malfunctioning [organization] of the inspection of the whole country in connection with the issue of windfalls and their acquisition by irresponsible elements. Mr. [Alireza] Moiri, [Advisor to the President] came. Regarding the advisory programs, the president said that

He is a consultant for the coordination of consultants. He expressed concern about the lack of decision-making power of Mr. [President] Khatami and the influence of outsiders in his office and his decisions. Mr. [Ali] Agha Mohammadi came. He had suggestions to renew people's trust for investment, which has now been denied.

In the evening [community] of militant clergy [Tehran] had a meeting in my office. There was a discussion about activating the militant clergy after the failure in the recent elections. Mr. [Mohammadreza] Fakir, [representative of Mashhad], complained that [the clerical community] had approved some of the candidates for the parliamentary elections as not qualified, and Mrs. [Marzieh] Vahiddastjardi and Mrs. [Ateqah] Siddiqi, [the wife of Shaheed Rajaee], two representatives [of the clerical community] from Tehran, complained that they did not comply with Sharia rules in their proposals in the parliament.

Mr. [Ali] Ghiori expressed his concern about the economic stagnation of the country and the losses caused by the noise of windfalls and the oppression of Mr. [Daud] Tajran, [Mayor of Region 20]. Mr. [Abd al-Hossein] Moezi said that so far in the new government, 550 managers affiliated with the right spectrum have been fired, mostly for supporting Mr. Natiq [Nuri] in the [presidential] elections, and it is possible that it will reach two thousand people, and this will cause no one to cooperate in the upcoming elections. Mr. [Reza] Motlabi said, why don't they pursue the mayor of Tehran, and Mr. [Mohyeddin] Anwari, [the head of the mosque affairs center], asked me to help the mosques in the next year's budget.