Son talks about martyred Iranian ambassador Hassan Irloo

“Born on June  1st, 1959 Hassan Irloo, Ali’s father was born on June 10, 1338 and was the eldest child of the family. The child after him was Hossein, then the sisters and finally a child named Asghar. Both Hossein and Asghar were martyred during the Iraqi imposed war, and perhaps no one would have thought that years later, the only remaining son of the family would also become martyred,” Ali Irloo, son of the veteran Iranian diplomat and military advisor told Mehr.

The son says that he used to call his father “Haj Hassan” and cited him as saying once that he had been sent to Lebanon in the early years of the Imposed Iraqi war on Iran (1980-1988). He had said that he was sent to Lebanon along with Martyr Ahmad Motevaselian at the order of the Late Leader of the Islamic Revolution Imam Khomeini.

“You have been ordered to go to Lebanon! Father Ali, who was a 22-year-old young man at that time, unmarried and brave told me once. He said he had refused telling them he would not go anywhere until the war in our country ended. But when he finds out that the order was from the Imam’s order, he obeys and goes to Lebanon. …He was among the 51 people who entered Syria and Lebanon with Martyr Motevaselian, and according to Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah, he was among those who founded Hezbollah in Lebanon. He was in charge of training in the Lebanese Army. After his injury in the imposed war, he was in Lebanon until 1984, when he returned to Iran due to the martyrdom of his brother, Hossein Irloo, whose comrades were all from Shiraz, and becomes the commander of the  ‘Al-Mahdi brigade of Shiraz. Later, they want him to be transferred to Tehran, but he remains in the Shiraz Army. The brother Hossein was martyred in 1984,” the son added.

“We were training for months, we were training 200 to 300 Hezbollah forces, then Israel bombed and suddenly we lost 100 elite forces. I was so careful this not to happen. I gave a special plan and implemented it myself; We built a barracks in the heart of the mountain and trained forces in the heart of the mountain. Israel could impose losses on us in the heart of the mountain because the garrison was hidden,” Martyr Hassan Irloo has told about a part of his years of efforts in the Lebanese Front to his young son.

Irloo’s family returned to Iran in 1991 after living in Lebanon for about 7 years. Hassan Irloo, after ten years of efforts, just when he witnessed his efforts yielded for Hezbollah, had to come back to the country to carry out other duties.

Ali’s father had suffered severe injuries with different gunshot wounds in different parts of his body, one sharpnel right behind his heart, which remained with him until his martyrdom.

He knew martyr Qassem Soleimani, the former commander of the IRGC Quds Force very well.

“After returning to Iran, Hassan Irloo continued to train special forces until 2011, when he started his activities in the Persian Gulf countries. But after the launch of the Saudi attack on Yemen, a new responsibility was given to him. The responsibility of the Yemen desk in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He was chosen as a special adviser to the minister for Yemeni affairs and worked in this field for several years until 2017, when he was asked to serve as an ambassador in the region. His copy of credentials were signed during the government of Hassan Rouhani and Mohammad Javad Zarif’s tenure as the foreign minister,” the son added.

“Due to the special conditions of Yemen and embargo on the country in the sea and air, the conditions were not like that a plane would fly from Tehran and a red carpet in the destination country could be laid for him. There were special conditions and it was necessary for Haj Agha (father Hassan) to be present in the region with some considerations. They had different scenarios to enter and it was God’s will that he was able to go to the region and finally, he started the mission in September 2018. At that time, it was not possible to travel at all. Their mission was there for almost a year and a half. The difference between Haj Agha’s work and other ambassadors in different countries was that he was a senior ambassador. Maybe we have heard this term less. A senior ambassador means an extraordinary and Ambassador Plenipotentiary who has special powers,” Ali added.

Hassan Irloo stayed on the mission from the time he arrived until his martyrdom. Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, the Iranian foreign minister, said in one of his speeches, “Once the Red Cross went to Mr. Irloo and said if you want to return to Iran for rest and to relax, we are ready to do this for you, but Martyr Irloo’s answer was that he would not return until his mission was completed.

Martyr Irloo’s son says, “Once after Haj Agha arrived in Yemen, he called and excitedly said that he would call us from Sana’a. We talked for a while the connection was lost. Sometime later, they decided to give us a special phone so that we can communicate with each other by voice and sometimes video. Of course, Haj Agha’s personality was such that he did not tell us anything. I remember once asking what are you doing there? he replied, ‘I can’t say here, but if I see you, I have many things to say! But he did not have the chance.”

MNA/5970132

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