Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi – October 31, 1991

Madrid conference news is at the top. Yesterday, there were general negotiations, to the extent of speeches by America, the Soviet Union, and Spain, and a kind of attention to Israel's demands in Bush's statements, which has worried the Arabs.

I did the work until nine o'clock in the morning. [Mr. Gholamreza Aghazadeh], the oil minister gave a report on oil affairs and talked about the abundance of construction projects and also about the needs of riyals and materials. In order to deal with Chinese guests, we canceled the program of the Expediency Discernment Forum.

At ten in the morning, the President of China and his companions came to the office. First, we had a private meeting, but it was normal conversation. Then there was a meeting of official negotiations about bilateral relations, where they talked about Asian, regional and global issues and America's abuse of the vacuum of a powerful rival. Up to half of the negotiations, he spoke from the script and was dry and ordinary. Later, when he faced my questions, he didn't write any more and he got better.

The negotiations were two hours long and it is interesting that Kebersen (85 years old) tolerated it well despite his [physical] weakness. After the meeting, Dr. Velayati and [Mahmoud] Vaezi came and explained the Iraqi opposition's mobilization plan. Mr. [Mansour] Razavi [Secretary General of Administrative and Employment Affairs Organization] came and raised his family's problems.

In the evening, we went to the leader's office to attend the meeting of the President of China; they came but did not sit, because there was no chair and they had to sit on the floor. Because he is old and fat, he could not sit; They are not used to sitting on the floor. They negotiated for a few minutes and left; It did not go well. Even though we already mentioned that there should be a thought for the chair.

I returned to my office. Mr. [Mahmoud] Vaezi and [Ahmed] Vahidi came. They said that Israel said that before the situation of its missing pilot is clarified, it will not release any Lebanese in front of Western hostages, and the work of the Secretary General [of the United Nations] has encountered a problem. They decided to investigate and find other ways to solve the problem of hostages or consider other concessions for the Lebanese.

At night, we went to Saadabad guest house. We had dinner and negotiated with the Chinese guests. I came home at nine o'clock at night.