136: Chapter 133 Nasser

August 29, 1981, Ahvaz.

Hassan's report had arrived, three days later than the one-week deadline.

Reza did not rush him. There was only one reason Hassan would be late with a report—he was verifying it, verifying it until he was satisfied himself.

The report was six pages long; the first two pages were Ibrahim Nasser's personal resume: forty-one years old, from Tikrit, a distant cousin of Saddam Hussein, entered the Iraq Army in 1970, promoted to brigadier general in 1978. After the outbreak of the Iran-Iraq War, he led the southern offensive of the Fifth Corps. He suffered heavy losses in the Battle of Al-Faw and was reprimanded publicly by Saddam Hussein once, but he was not removed from his post—because Saddam Hussein needed that reckless drive of his.

Starting from the third page, it was what Reza really wanted.

Nasser had an adjutant named Faris Daoud, thirty-four years old, from Baghdad. He was not of the Tikrit faction and was an outsider in the Iraq army. Nasser used him because he was proficient in logistics and supply; this professional value allowed him to survive in a system filled with hometown cronies.

But there was a score to settle between him and Nasser.

During the war, when Nasser's Fifth Corps was retreating during the Battle of Al-Faw, he left Faris's younger brother—a regular infantryman—on the front lines, abandoning him without organizing a retreat. That brother later died during the pursuit by the Iran army. Nasser's excuse was "The battlefield situation was critical; it was impossible to evacuate everyone," but insiders told Hassan's informant that Nasser had plenty of time to organize another group for retreat; he simply did not give the order.

Faris knew the truth, but he said nothing and continued to serve as his adjutant.

"This Faris," Reza said to Hassan after finishing the report, "can he access Nasser's operational plans from his current position?"

"He can," Hassan said. "The position of adjutant is central in the Iraq army; all documents must pass through his hands."

"Does he have any opportunity to leave Iraq?"

"Yes. Nasser goes to Baghdad every month for meetings, and Faris accompanies him, staying at a military guesthouse on Faisal Street. The security there is very lax, and sometimes he goes out for a walk by himself in the afternoon."

Reza read the third page of the report over and over again.

Faris was not a man who could be bought with money—Hassan's report specifically noted this. His salary in the army was sufficient, and he had no obvious financial pressure. What might drive him to cooperate was not money, but that score to settle.

"I don't want him to become our informant," Reza said. "I want him to do one specific thing."

Hassan waited for the rest.

"Nasser is conspiring within the army, advocating for the resumption of the war," Reza said. "If a document of his private discussions with other corps commanders, or a record of him bypassing Saddam Hussein to contact Iraqi hardliners directly, were to fall into Saddam Hussein's hands—what would Saddam Hussein do?"

Hassan's expression shifted; he understood the implication: "Saddam Hussein is most wary of subordinates bypassing him to conduct secret activities, regardless of whether the direction of those activities is what he wants—he would remove Nasser."

"No need to kill him; just removing him from the position of corps commander is enough," Reza said. "A dismissed radical is not as dangerous as an active radical."

"The problem is, where would this document come from?"

"From Faris," Reza said. "But we don't need him to forge anything—if Nasser is truly conspiring, then he must have real records in his own possession. Faris only needs to take something that already exists and, through the right channel, deliver it to the right person."

Hassan thought for a moment: "Is there any channel on Saddam Hussein's side that we can use?"

"Within the Mukhabarat," Reza said. "During our operation in Samarra, we obtained a list of internal personnel from the Iraq intelligence system. Check if there is anyone close to Saddam Hussein's inner circle in it."

"I need three days for this."

"Good, three days," Reza said. "But before that, make contact with Faris first. Not to recruit him, just to make contact, let him know that someone knows about that score, and see his reaction."

"If the contact fails, he might report it to Nasser—"

"Therefore, the method of contact must make him feel that reporting it wouldn't benefit him either," Reza said. "How exactly to make contact is your specialty; I won't teach you that."

Hassan put the report away and stood up.

Walking to the door, he paused and turned back: "If Nasser is removed, then among the five corps commanders, there will be only one voice for the radicals, and the stability of the ceasefire agreement will increase. But will Saddam Hussein replace him with someone even more radical?"

"No," Reza said. "Saddam Hussein doesn't need radicals right now; what he needs is an obedient army. Nasser's problem isn't that he's radical, it's that he's not obedient enough. That is what Saddam Hussein truly cannot tolerate."

Hassan nodded and went out.

In the afternoon, Karimi brought Mahdavi's report.

The repair project for the water supply station had started. According to Mahdavi's estimation, the first one could be completed within two months, and the second one would take another six weeks. The progress was a bit looser than the three months Reza had requested, but Mahdavi explained the reason in the report—the originally planned pipeline materials could not be purchased within Iran and needed to be imported from outside, using channels through Turkey, which cost an extra two weeks of waiting time.

Reza wrote a line on the report: Keep the material channels, prioritize stocking the next batch, and don't wait until you need them to go looking.

Then, the port.

The restart plan for the Port of Basra was out, sent jointly by Mahdavi and Rajai. This slightly surprised Reza—that these two could actually co-sign a document showed that they had at least handled the division of labor well on the surface.

In the plan, the port restart was divided into three phases. The first phase was to resume the entry and exit of small cargo ships, mainly handling trade in the direction of Kuwait and Iran; the second phase was to rebuild the customs and taxation system and establish formal cargo records; the third phase was to introduce Iranian shipping companies and establish regular routes.

Time estimation: first phase, six weeks; second phase, three months; third phase, half a year.

Reza changed the time for the first phase to four weeks and added a note on the side: The time of the port opening is more important than any administrative procedure; residents seeing ships coming in is more convincing than seeing government reports.

He sent this note back to Mahdavi and then called Karimi in.

"Any response from Zia-ul-Haq?"

The private letter was sent out shortly after the ceasefire, via an indirect channel found by Karimi, passed on through an Iranian businessman doing business in Karachi.

"There was a response last week," Karimi said. "Not a letter, but a verbal message, passed back through the same channel—Haq said he is willing to talk, but he needs a safer, direct channel and does not want to go through intermediaries."

This was a positive signal, Reza knew.

Haq was not stalling; he was asking to upgrade the security level—this showed he was taking this matter seriously.

"I need to go there in person," Reza said.

Karimi clearly anticipated this answer; he did not object, only asking: "When?"

"Arrange it, as soon as possible within a month. The destination is not Islamabad; find an intermediate point—it could be Afghanistan, it could be somewhere in the Gulf—let Haq's side propose it."

"Afghanistan is currently occupied by the Soviet Union, it's not suitable—"

"Then let Haq decide; he knows where he can go and where he cannot," Reza said. "I have only one requirement: do not go through any third-party government; it must be a purely private meeting."

Karimi noted it down and went out.

Reza sat at the desk for a while, running through the matters handled today in his mind.

Nasser—use Faris to remove him from the position of corps commander.

Water supply station—two months, acceptable.

Port—four weeks, the first phase must be completed.

Zia-ul-Haq—meet within a month, obtain the procurement channel for chips.

Four matters, different directions, but each one pointed to the same goal—before the two-year negotiation period ended, tip the scales of Basra toward Iran.

The military battles were over, but these matters were each harder to resolve than fighting a war.

He took out a dark blue notebook and wrote a line:

"After the ceasefire, every battle I fight is one without gunfire."