Akbar Hashemi's memories - November 13, 2002

  Labor Minister Safdar Hosseini's criticism of the leadership's statements about corruption and threats to use popular forces against officials and said that these will cause capital flight and recession and unemployment.  I confirmed and said, slogan movements of the second Khordadi are another obstacle to the work.

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Dr. [Ahmad] Nikkar, the former executive of the Qom-Kashan highway project, came.  He told about his scientific and executive background and that during my visit to the plan, he said important things about the greatness of the construction government's work, which caused the anger of the extremists of the Second Khordat, and he believes that the construction movement will not be repeated in Iran so easily.  He criticized the stagnation of important projects such as the Imam Khomeini International Airport, the Tehran-North and Zanjan-Tabriz highways, the Bafaq-Mashhad railway, etc., and said that a part of the Tehran City Council offered him the post of the mayor of Tehran.  He is worried about the disputes of the city council and the near end of their working life.

The children of Martyr Mihrab [Ataullah] Ashrafi Isfahani came.  They thanked me for my trip to Kermanshah for the anniversary ceremony and complained about the lack of a message from the leadership.  Mr. Safdar Hosseini, Minister of Labor [and Social Affairs] came.  He gave a report on the progress of the employment action plan.  I also told the problems of the plan to fix it.  He criticized the leadership's statements about corruption and threatening to use people's forces in front of the officials and said that these will cause capital flight and recession and unemployment.  I confirmed and said, sloganeering movements of the second Khordadi are another obstacle to the work.  

In the evening, Messrs. [Tahmaseb] Mazaheri and [Mehdi] Karbasian, the Minister of Economy and the Vice-Chancellor, came.  They gave a report on the tax and investment plan, money laundering and capital market bills, etc. and said that with the serious need for employment, delaying these bills for several years in the parliament and the government is a crisis-maker.  They asked me to help so that they are approved in the parliament in the form of Article 85, or to speed things up, it will come to the assembly as a problem.  I asked questions about the consumption tax [value added] and the possibility of inflation, but they did not have a convincing answer;  It was decided to investigate further.

Gatherings and statements of students and parties against the death sentence of Mr. [Hashem] Aghajari continue.  The representatives of the leadership in the university have also given a negative statement, but the movement of Basiji students has started in favor of the judiciary and some students have started criticizing the protest groups and the judiciary has started responding.  

Saddam [Hussein, the president of Iraq] announced tonight that he has unconditionally accepted Resolution 1441 [UN Security Council on disarmament].  Although it says in this resolution, [weapons] inspectors can interrogate anyone, wherever and whenever they want, which includes taking some of them abroad for investigation.  Al-Jazeera TV broadcasted a tape with the voice of [Osama] Bin Laden, [the leader of Al-Qaeda group] threatening the United States.  

Iftar, their bodyguards and family members were my guests, Efat also came to welcome their wives.