Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi – July 23, 1982

 I stayed at home all day. I still have a slight fever and a toothache, but it's not severe. I'm on antibiotics. Mr Abdolkarim Mousavi Ardabili led the Friday prayer. We had no significant news. I got in touch with the front; it turned out they have a limited operation planned for tonight. They say the enemy has been greatly weakened in terms of infantry; he is defending with armoured forces and, by creating natural obstacles such as trenches, swamps and minefields, is preventing our forces from advancing. I also made contact early in the evening; Mr Mohsen Rezaei said that the operation has begun and one division is engaged.

 I spoke to Mr Khamenei on the phone. He informed me of a letter from the presidents of Turkey, Pakistan and Guinea regarding the war and our entry into Iraqi territory, in which they had called for mediation and negotiations, and our reply was, as usual, the same as before. The experts' view is that the mediators are trying more to buy time and give Saddam a chance to regroup, to lower the morale of our fighters and to create doubt among them about the seriousness of the war. One of their reasons is that so far they have not made any serious proposal for Iraq or the Arabs to give any concessions towards paying compensation. and for Saddam to accept blame. At midday, Aftab and the children were guests of Mrs Shahid Fayed-Bakhsh, and Mohsen, the guards and I stayed at home. I rested more because I was feeling unwell.

I answered Fāṭī's questions. Usually Fāṭī brings the questions from the Islamic Republic Party units and gets the answers. Yesterday's and today's reports haven't arrived because of the holiday, and I have little information about the details of the incidents.