Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi – October 18, 1997

Until noon, we had a meeting of the [expediency of the system] assembly. 13 articles of the anti-narcotics law were approved. Mr. [Mohammed] Yazdi, [head of the Judiciary], after the meeting, they asked me for a joint meeting of the Khobargan Board of Directors and the Khobargan Investigation Commission; I said that we can have a meeting during the trip to Qom.

In the evening, a group of young people from the southeast of Tehran came. In order to convince me, they explained to accept the participation in the celebration of construction services. I had previously accepted, but recently I refused, but they have announced in the newspapers; I accepted

Mr. [Mohammed Ali] Zam, the head of the art field [Islamic Propaganda Organization] came. He brought the portfolio of publications in the field and asked me to pay more attention to such cultural works. He expressed concern about the weakness of the government's management and said, today a group of cinematographers said in their meeting that we expected the new president to take action to reform economic affairs and organize distribution, but now one person has been added to the ranks. Referring to the presence of Mr. Khatami in the food line or the store line, which was mentioned as an honor in the reports. He complained about the management of the Islamic Propaganda Organization.

Mr. [Hossein] Karimi, the judicial deputy of Mr. [Mohammed] Yazdi, [head of the judiciary] came. He said about the weaknesses of the judiciary, including the density of laws, directives and procedures, as well as the excessive responsibility of judicial heads and administrators, the political actions of some judges, and the example of Tehran's municipal issues, and he asked me to help think about the expediency of the system. He brought several volumes of books that he prepared to collect valid regulations.

Mr. [Motahar] Kazemi, representative of Khalkhal, came. He appreciated the construction works and expressed concern about the weakness of the construction and economic planning of the new government and about the appearance. He said, he was with Mr. Khatami, [President] on his trip to Ardabil. Mr. Khatami came from Tabriz to Ardabil by car, but sometimes his companions announced that he came by bus and also announced that schools and offices should not be closed for the welcoming ceremony, but they closed schools and offices to ensure the crowd in the stadium. The people of Ardabil are upset that the new government has withdrawn the railway plan that I accepted and approved during my trip to Ardabil. I said to be optimistic and hopeful.

Mr. [Gholamreza] Aghazadeh, [head of the Atomic Energy Organization] came. He explained his plans for special affairs and expressed concern about the confusion of the government and economic, cultural and political programs. In the evening, Mr. [Abbas] Waez Tabasi, [Mohammed] Emami Kashani and [Qorban Ali] came to Najafabadi. On behalf of a larger meeting of their friends, they had a representative to negotiate with me. They said that my not being with [the militant] clerical [community] in the elections caused their defeat, and they expressed concern about the future of economic, cultural, and political affairs and the further weakening of the clergy and leadership, and they asked me to cooperate with them for the future.

I explained that not accepting Ittihad's opinion in the [fifth] parliamentary elections is the origin of this failure; Because they refused to attract the brokers and instead preferred to compete with them and the result was that the brokers formed an alliance with the left forces and became the majority. Now, the way is to work to attract moderate votes and refrain from extreme propaganda. They are worried about the elections of councils and Khobargan and the upcoming parliament.

I warned Mr. Dory about preventing the extreme activities of the Ministry of Information. Mr. Tabasi expressed concern about the misuse of wiretapping and the extreme pursuit of personal and moral deviations, from the position of political accusations of individuals.