Rouhani: Hashemi Issued the Command for Operation Karbala-4 and Designed Karbala-5

According to Hassan Rouhani, the President, "the command" for Operation Karbala-4 was issued by Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the former head of the Expediency Discernment Council, and it was he who subsequently decided that the "next operation," namely Karbala-5, should be designed. On Thursday, Hassan Rouhani also spoke about Hashemi's important role in "uniting the country" during crises, including after the death of Ruhollah Khomeini and the election of Ali Khamenei as the leader of the Islamic Republic. Rouhani's remarks, made on the second anniversary of Hashemi's death, followed a controversial tweet by Mohsen Rezaei, who wrote: "Operation Karbala-4 was conducted to deceive the enemy. If a historical analyst falls for that deception, then woe to their writings." He added: "With Operation Karbala-4, we made the enemy believe that our annual operation was only this one. Ten days later, at the same point and at a time when the Ba'ath army forces were on leave, we carried out Operation Karbala-5." Although Islamic Republic officials have never announced complete and detailed statistics on the casualties of the two operations Karbala-4 and 5, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani wrote in his memoirs that in Operation Karbala-4, "we had nearly a thousand martyrs and 3,900 missing persons, most of whom should be counted as martyrs, and about 11,000 wounded, about half of whom were treated on an outpatient basis or are being treated." On Thursday, Rouhani, without referring to Rezaei's tweet and the number of Iranian casualties in these two operations, stated: "The command for Karbala-4 was issued by Hashemi himself. Sometimes we succeeded, sometimes we did not. After Karbala-4, Hashemi decided that the next operation should be designed, and this was done." He described the "words" of Ruhollah Khomeini and Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani during the war as "similar" and added that the founder of the Islamic Republic always asked him to coordinate in this regard with "the views of Mr. Khamenei and Hashemi." The President of Iran stated that Hashemi's "role" during the eight-year Iran-Iraq war was "clear to everyone" and added: "We, who usually had no military experience, but with the extraordinary protection that [Hashemi] had, spoke with commanders about operations." Rouhani introduced Hashemi as "a true statesman" and said that he acted similarly regarding the end of the war. Rouhani added that Hashemi not only had a significant role in the war and ending it, which should be documented in a book, but also played an important role in "uniting the country" after the bombing of the presidential office on Tir 7, 1360 and in "uniting" the Assembly of Experts after Khomeini's death. The President of Iran explicitly stated: "The one who gathered the Assembly of Experts the day after Khordad 14 was Hashemi. If Hashemi had not been there on Khordad 14, 68, the Assembly would not have reached any conclusion regarding either a council or consensus on an individual. Hashemi played a significant role in important events; can you ignore Hashemi's role in the 76 elections? Can you ignore Hashemi's role in the 92 elections?" His reference is to the extraordinary meeting of the Assembly of Experts to elect the leader of the Islamic Republic after Khomeini's death, in which Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, as the then Vice President of the Assembly, stated that the election of Ali Khamenei as leader was a temporary matter and would be valid until a referendum on constitutional changes was held. In the footage released from this meeting, Hashemi's role in trying to present Khamenei, who lacked "ijtihad," as "knowledgeable" and quickly garnering the support of others for his leadership is clearly evident. Hashemi had also previously quoted Ruhollah Khomeini in a crucial statement, saying that after the dismissal of Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri from the position of Deputy Leader, the founder of the Islamic Republic favored Ali Khamenei's leadership.