Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi – March 13, 1985

They described the situation of operations in the fronts as good. In the east of the Tigris, we have made progress and the success of launching missiles to Kirkuk has brought about an important change in favor of our forces. Iraq stupidly denies [missile hitting Kirkuk] and presents the sound of the explosion as a result of sabotage; No one believes.

In the [Parliament] meeting before the start, I gave the [front] news to the representatives. At noon in my office, I followed the news. The pressure of the Iraqi forces on the forces of the Najaf base is high and the Iranian forces of the Noh base have returned to the first place. The bridges have not yet been connected. The situation is disturbing and the news of Iraq's attack on cities like Isfahan, Rasht, etc. is even more disturbing.

In the evening, I mentioned the problems of the war to the representatives and came to my office. At night, we held a public meeting [in the parliament] to discuss the budget, but I did not participate. At night, the heads of forces in the parliament were my guests; Most of the discussion was about launching missiles at Baghdad. Finally, it was not approved, but at the end of the night Mr. [Hasan] Rouhani and others insisted; Because of its effect on the front and breaking the morale of the enemy and giving morale to the fighters and the people, it was agreed that they would fire [missiles at Baghdad] tonight. The war was also discussed. The possibility of accepting a ceasefire in case of maintaining the presence of Iranian forces in the east of the Tigris was highly favored in the meeting. But the imam does not agree to talk about this for the time being.

The introduction of new proposed ministers was also discussed. There is no agreement between Mr. [Mirhossein] Mousavi and Mr. [Ayatollah] Khamenei on this issue. Both sides had detailed discussions on this issue. In general, they have many differences of opinion. Probably, Imam should solve. At night, I stayed in the parliament.