Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs)
June 04 2010
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Question: Are you still seeing any kind of role, any influence, from Iran in Iraq?
GEN. ODIERNO: In terms of Iran, you know, they continue to be very much involved inside of Iraq. We understand that they're a neighbor, and we want them to be — have a positive influence on Iraq, not one that we believe to be negative influence inside of Iraq. We know that, you know, they will do — their goals are that they don't want to see the U.S. have a long-term relationship with Iraq. You know, they don't — that — they don't want to see that. So they'll continue to fund surrogates and others who will attack U.S. forces and attack Iraqi security forces who are working with U.S. forces.
Just yesterday, there was a rocket attack in southern Iraq near Amarah, where they killed three Iraqi security forces. And these were Iranian surrogates who conducted these attacks.
So they are not just attacking U.S. forces. They are — they continue to infiltrate some of their security architecture into Iraq.
The Iraqis are doing — are stepping up their work at the borders. But they're trying to infiltrate, so they can continue to try to influence outcomes inside of Iraq.
So they make all the positive statements in the press saying, we just want to see a legitimate government, we're for Iraq moving forward. But behind the scenes, they continue to interfere in my mind both from a political, economic and a military perspective.
Question: Can you quantify the Iranian involvement? Is it more or less or about the same than it was, say, a year ago? And specifically on EFPs [Explosively Formed Projectiles] and that technology?
GEN. ODIERNO: I mean, it's different. I think they've, as everyone does, they continue to change their strategy. They — from 2007 and '08, have clearly moved away from a heavy lethal strategy to one that involves some lethal and then some nonlethal, trying to almost gain monopolies in some economic areas as well as through heavy diplomatic and security collection influence inside of Iraq.
So it's shifted a little bit. But there are still EFPs going off in Iraq. There were 30 EFPs that we either found or exploded in the month of May. So they're still there.
There are still Katyusharockets that have been made in Iran that are being shot. They're less than it used to be, but they're still there. There's still training going on inside of Iran, of surrogates that come out of Iraq. So they're still doing it but at a lower level than they were before.