It was the night that soviet forces invaded Afghanistan. At around midnight the ambassador without even a short notice arrived in Imam’s office in Qum. All of the members of the office including myself got deeply surprised with the sudden presence of the Russian ambassador there at a time like that. It is worth to mention that friendly and plain style of managing Imam’s administration – which was the emphatic order of Imam as the method of managing the office –could have been a reason for him to allow him coming so sudden and informal.
The ambassador’s answer to our repetitive questioning about the cause of his sudden drop in was just the same repeating answer that “I have an important mission here and I must see Imam urgently”. We spoke to him more and he’d return the converse as ambiguous as he ever could. This dialogue went on until 8 o’clock in the morning. Finally, he met Imam at 8, delivered the news on occupation Afghanistan to him. Imam said “You’ve done wrong, you’ll never be successful in none of your wishes in there, and undoubtedly you’ll confess your failure one day”.
Quoted from Hojat-al-Islam Ashtiani