Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi – January 7, 1987

After morning prayer, I went to the airport to go south for operations. Because Khuzestan is not safe, we went to Shiraz. We left Shiraz at nine in the morning by car through Behbahan towards Ahvaz. It is snowing in the mountains. The road was not bad; A mountainous part and a plain part. We had about five hundred kilometers to go when we arrived at eight o'clock in the evening. I got tired

After prayer and dinner, we went to the camp of Khatam al-Anbiya (PBUH). By four o'clock in the morning, the corps commanders gathered. The operation and its time were discussed. Some did not agree with the set time due to the moonlight, and some disagreed with the delay, due to the preparation of forces and facilities at work and the strong possibility that the operation would be discovered in the event of a delay and the return of the forces whose commitment period had expired: Mr. [Mohsen] Rezaei and [Ali] Shamkhani were in favor and Mr. [Gholamali] Rashid and Rahim [Safavi] were against.

Finally, Mr. Rezaei and I decided to make a decision. The two of us, plus Dr. Rouhani, discussed the matter and preferred to act at the appointed time and announced to the four headquarters and it was decided that the operation would begin, unless the commander of the corps recognized that they had a major problem.

Doubts are very painful. For the first time in the history of the war, I have experienced such a situation before the operation. Maybe because of the situation that happened in Karbala Chahar operation and we were afraid and because of my direct responsibility and the same situation is true for other commanders.