Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi – February 19, 1987

I packed the suitcase for the trip to Khuzestan and at 7:15 I came out of the house with a farewell prayer and a prayer for chastity.

In the public meeting, before the order about the birth of Hazrat Zahra (PBUH) and the Imam and [29th of Bahman] the anniversary of the uprising of the people of Tabriz [in 1356] and the anniversary of the martyrdom of a group of representatives and others

I talked about the plane crash with the Iraqi missile. [This speech] was mostly to announce the presence in Tehran.

I left for Qom at half past nine in the morning. Dr. Rohani was delayed due to the negligence of my office which did not inform him. He reached me on the way to Qom and came in my car. At eleven o'clock we arrived at Ayatollah Montazeri's house. They were building an underground shelter outside the house. [Mr. Mohtashmipour] the Minister of Interior was also there. We met outside.

They informed that the situation is red. We were moved to the basement of the house, which was made bomb-proof. The windows of Mr. Montazeri's house and its surroundings were broken due to the explosion of a bomb that fell in the river a few hundred meters from the house. I told them about the results of Mr. Velayati's trip to the Council. Mr. Rouhani explained the lack of defense facilities in response to his criticisms of defense. They announced lunch, but we did not stay.

We left for Ahvaz before noon. Outside the city of Qom, we changed cars and clothes. We had lunch next to Imamzadeh Jafar's tomb, between Qom and Arak. Then we drove all the way to Dezful. It rains and snows in the passes. Khorramabad, Poldakhtar and Malawi were quiet. We arrived at Vahdati Dezful base at ten o'clock in the evening. Bakhtiari, deputy commander of the base, was the host. We ate dinner and watched the news at half past ten on Channel Two [TV] and slept.

As of noon today, the bombing of the cities was stopped and we also ordered to stop attacking the cities. He spent the night reading reports and discussing the war with Dr. Rouhani. Today, there was a conflict between our F-14 planes and eight Iraqi Mirage planes in the Persian Gulf, which our pilots claimed, shot down three Iraqi planes and damaged two planes.

At night, the IRGC commanders Mr. Mohsen Rezaei, [Ali] Shamkhani and [Yahi Rahim] Safavi came and explained the plan of future attacks. It seems that we have a hard and frontal war, but they see the only way and it seems that it is not necessary for us to stay in Ahvaz. We were up until one in the morning.