There has been a lot of talk recently about a “a quiet process of apparent concessions and small gestures of approval between the United States and Iran in Iraq” as it was described today by Iran expert Gary Sick at FP Passport. Go read the whole post to see evidence of this courtship, most of which will be well familiar to our readers. Still, there’s very little evidence that any thawing in relations between Iran and the United States has produced improvements on the ground in Iraq–just a lot of empty promises. Last time we spoke with General Bergner, back in October, he explained that despite Iranian commitments to reduce the flow of weapons and fighters,
We haven’t seen that yet, and that’s something that we hope they actually do follow through on. And there is — there becomes some sort of statistically significant discernible improvement. In the meantime, we do continue to conduct the operations that are targeting the networks and the facilitators — and most recently, Mahmoud Farhadi, a Qods Force officer detained in northern Iraq a couple weeks ago — because that’s our mandate. That’s our responsibility, to take the necessary actions to improve stability and security here — so more to follow — more to be seen on that front.
Now comes a report from Stars and Stripes that there is still no “discernible improvement” vis-Ã -vis Iranian men and materiel flowing into Iraq:
A U.S. commander in Baghdad said he has seen no signs that Iranian-backed Shiite extremists are curtailing their attacks against coalition forces…. “While the violence is down, I remain very concerned in our sector about these special groups,” Farris said. “They’re very lethal. They’re organized. They’re sophisticated, and I have not seen that their operations have declined or diminished in any way shape or form here in the last several months.”… Iran has reportedly promised the Iraqi government that it will stem the flow of weapons into Iraq, but Farris said Monday that he still sees evidence of Iranian activities in his sector. “In the last six weeks, we have captured two Iranian operatives, we’ve captured two Iraqis: One was significant because he admitted to receiving training in Iran in building and employing these explosive formed projectiles, and another was – admitted working as an agent for somebody or some group in Iran,” Farris said.
Unfortunately, it seems that a halt to Iranian attacks on U.S. forces is not among the “apparent concessions and small gestures” being made between the two countries.
