Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi – February 3, 1987

I woke up first thing in the morning during the call to prayer. I took a bath and listened to foreign and domestic news after praying. The Americans have considered our withdrawal to be partial, contrary to Iraq's claim, which he introduced as important. We consulted with Dr. Rouhani about the way to treat the troops and the time and quality of the continuation of the operation and about the facilities of the army that should reach the IRGC.

Mr. Rezaei wrote a letter to the Imam and requested 100 tanks, 100 personnel carriers and 3 anti-aircraft guns, 57 sandbars and 10 artillery battalions. The Imam also wrote to me and Mr. [Ayatollah] Khamenei that the needs of Karbala Panj should be provided and they considered it necessary rationally and according to Sharia, but the IRGC raised the requested figures after this. It seemed to us that it is possible to provide the same numbers approved by the Imam.

Mr. [Moussa] Refan [commander of the IRGC Air Force] was talked about speeding up the operationalization of the anti-aircraft sites we received from China. One of them is operational in Tehran and one in Isfahan will be operational until Thursday. This morning they fired a missile at Baghdad and I told them to fire one every other day until further notice and in case the Baathists are evil in the cities.

Mr. Rafiq Dost has been told to try to get more missiles from North Korea. Libya no longer gives us missiles and is gradually taking an anti-war stance. Even the SAM anti-aircraft missile site that it has in Tehran has been rendered non-operational under the pretext of component failure.

Mr. Hosni Saadi came with three ground force commanders. The needs of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which the Imam ordered to be delivered, were discussed. Their opinion is that with this tool, the IRGC, with high losses, will at most reach the Jowi channel, and this amount of progress will not change anything. It is better to preserve the facilities and raise the demands by relying on them, but they have no answer to the question of what to do with the bombardment of the cities on the front. The result of their words is to wait until we equip more forces.

Ahmad Agha asked about the situation of the front on the phone and asked about the delivery of the IRGC's facilities. Finally, in consultation with Dr. Rouhani, I wrote to the army ground forces under the order of the Imam to place the requested items under the operational control of the IRGC for a period of five weeks. In the evening, we went to the Hak missile site in the west of Ahvaz in the artificial forest. I visited different parts. It was interesting to me. I gave a Quran to the site.

Then I went to Khatam camp. The commanders of the armies and camps gathered. I spoke to them about the necessity of continuing the operation and pursuing the enemy. They mentioned the lack of armor support against Iraq as their main problem, and they demanded that the ground forces of the army come to their aid, and they do not consider the amount ordered today to be sufficient. We returned to golf at twelve o'clock at night.