Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi – June 27, 1983

For the speech in Isfahan, I did some studying. I read the report of the UN delegation; it is relatively realistic: the Iraqis have had very little destruction in their country. For the most part, regarding civilians and the population - by the delegation's own admission - there was nothing deliberate or targeted on our part, but they have deemed our civilian destruction extensive, deliberate and inhumane; of course, our officials did not take them everywhere, for example, to Hamadan, Ahvaz, Gilan-e Gharb, Kermanshah and Hamidiyeh [they did not take them], and they even wanted not to take them to Qasr-e Shirin, but at the delegation's own insistence they went as far as its vicinity; all in all, it is good. I also made up for the two or three days' delay in the memoirs. Since the main telephone line at home is broken, contact with the outside is limited. I rested and watered the garden.

At four in the afternoon, I went to the airport. Accompanied by Messrs. [Mohyi al-Din] Fazel Herandi and [Qorbanali] Dori [Najafabadi] and [Ahmad] Salek [Ashtiani], we flew to Isfahan; to attend the ceremony for the martyrs of the Seventh of Tir and to create unity among the dispersed forces and factions (the [Islamic Republic] Party and the [Isfahan] Society of Combatant Clergy and Mr. [Jalal al-Din] Taheri and other clerics and the Revolutionary Guards). An official reception was held at the airport by the clerics and revolutionary institutions and heads of government offices. I spoke briefly to them and thanked them. Then I went to the Martyrs' Cemetery – graveyard-; they said that more than three thousand named martyrs and one thousand two hundred unnamed or missing martyrs have graves there.

I went to the governorate. We had a meeting with [members of the Isfahan] Society of Combatant Clergy; all their talk was complaints and disparagement of the [Islamic Republic] Party of Isfahan and the opposing clerics, including Mr. Khademi; I gave them some advice and called for unity. At iftar, Mr. [Jalal al-Din] Taheri, the Friday prayer leader of [Isfahan], also came. We prayed together. After iftar, we met with the Central Council of the Islamic Republic Party. Their remarks were the reverse of those of the Combatant Clergy. I advised them and explained the line of unity. I also conveyed the decisions of the Central Council [of the Islamic Republic Party]. Then I had a meeting with [a group of] clerics (non-Combatant). They strongly complained about Mr. [Jalal al-Din] Taheri and the [Isfahan] Society of Combatant Clergy for monopolism. They had also brought a letter from Ayatollah Khademi [head of the Isfahan Seminary] that consisted entirely of complaints about Mr. Taheri and those around him and the [Isfahan] governorate. The Revolutionary Guards commanders also complained about Mr. Taheri and the governorate and the [Isfahan] Society of Combatant Clergy. At ten thirty in the morning, I gave a speech in Imam Square to the attendees -who, they said, numbered about half a million -. It was a huge crowd and I spoke for more than an hour and a half. Messrs. Taheri and Khademi had also attended the meeting.  At twelve noon, we came to the airport and flew to Tehran. At the airport, we also had a brief meeting with the Isfahan Revolutionary Guards Command Council. I went straight to the Majles; I slept a little and then ate the pre-dawn meal, prayed and went to sleep.