Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi - December 13, 2002

Based on the military agreement between the US and Qatar, the US must maintain a minimum of 10,000 military personnel at Al Udeid Air Base at all times, in addition to 100 combat aircraft, and the US has the right to use this base for military operations anywhere, which is proof of Qatar's full obedience and submission.

Full Text of the Daily Note:

The US and Qatar signed a military agreement. Based on it, the US must maintain a minimum of 10,000 military personnel at Qatar's Al Udeid Air Base at all times, in addition to 100 combat aircraft, and the US has the right to use this base for military operations anywhere, which is proof of Qatar's full obedience and submission. Simultaneously, the US has escalated the drums of war in Iraq. Bob Graham, Chairman of the US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said the US should attack centers in Iran that train terrorists. CNN [News Network] also published a report on Iran's nuclear centers in Natanz, Kashan, and Arak, and Iran, in response, declared that all of Iran's activities regarding nuclear energy are peaceful and non-military.

The leaders of the European Union at the Denmark summit postponed the start of membership negotiations for Turkey until 2004, which Turkey rejected. The Ariane 5 rocket, which was carrying Europe's largest telecommunications satellite into space, exploded three minutes after launch and crashed into the sea. Europe's heavy satellite, which was launched into space by Russia from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, failed to enter orbit, returned to Earth, and caught fire and burned up.

In northern Greece, along with the rain, a massive number of small sardine fish rained down on the ground, which people collected for food; they were probably carried into the air by a waterspout in the sea.

I was at home. Before noon, Mohammad Taqi, our worker, came from Nouq. He said that this year, the total pistachio yield from Nouq, Jalgheh, and Alborz Qom has reached about 30 tons, which is valued at about 70 million Tomans, and the current cost for pistachio farming in the area was about 20 million Tomans. He, his wife, and his child are leaving for Mecca for Hajj al-Tamattu'; this is a sign of the improvement in the situation of the workers.

In the evening, A-Sheikh Hossein Hashemian and other relatives from the Pistachio [Exporters'] Cooperative [of Rafsanjan] were our guests. I told them to adjust their salaries from the cooperative to be commensurate with the salary level of the country's managers. They said that the project to transfer water from Soulkan to Rafsanjan will soon go out to tender for implementation. The US claims that Iraq's report does not resolve the ambiguity regarding weapons of mass destruction.