CIA chief becomes key envoy as ties between Biden and Netanyahu unravel
One key American official is quietly keeping Washington’s lines of communication open across the Middle East as the U.S. and Israel endure their worst falling-out in decades over the war in the Gaza Strip.
Central Intelligence Agency Director William Burns, a veteran diplomat and Arabic speaker, was in Cairo alongside Qatari and Egyptian mediators recently as President Joe Biden set off a political firestorm by halting the shipment of about 3,500 bombs to Israel. The
White House is increasingly concerned about massive civilian casualties if Israel launches a ground offensive on Rafah, the southern Gaza city where 1.4 million Palestinians are sheltering from the war.
Biden’s priority is winning a deal to release more of the hostages Hamas took in its Oct. 7 attack on Israel. And it has fallen to the U.S. intelligence chief to balance Biden’s carrots-and-sticks approach as Washington struggles to keep the seven-month-old war from escalating further.
Burns is “a man of results, and I think one of the best U.S. diplomats I have ever met,” said Amr Moussa, a former Egyptian foreign minister.
His involvement, according to Moussa, is a recognition by the U.S. that “the rage” in the Middle East provoked by the Gaza war and Washington’s support for Israel has put the U.S.’s reputation and credibility on the line, particularly with traditional Arab allies such as Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. They believe the White House should have put more pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to end the conflict.
Burns “has assiduously developed personal relationships with leaders across the region for decades,” said William Usher, a former senior Middle East analyst at the CIA. “We are at a critical stage. All sides have incentives to back out of a deal, and in moments like this, public posturing can often backfire.”
Burns played an integral role in helping craft the week-long cease-fire late last year that led to the release of dozens of prisoners on both sides. For a moment last week, it almost seemed as if Burns and his counterparts had pulled it off again after Hamas, designated a terrorist group by the U.S. and European Union, said it had accepted a Qatari and Egyptian proposal to halt hostilities.
But the talks quickly stalled again as it became clear that Israel would not accept Hamas’ proposal for a truce effectively to be permanent.
While Burns appears to be the most prominent U.S. official on the Middle East file at the moment, given the importance of the ceasefire-for-hostages deal that might end the violence, he’s hardly the only official in what has at times seemed like a fullcourt press from the Biden administration.
National Security Adviser
Jake Sullivan, White House Middle East envoy Brett McGurk, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, and the presidential coordinator on global infrastructure Amos Hochstein — who has experience negotiating with Lebanon, where Iran-backed Hezbollah militants are based — have all made extended trips to and within the region.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who has made seven trips to the region, has helped to persuade the Israelis to open border crossings for aid, and has also helped to coordinate humanitarian pauses in the fighting and implement procedures to ensure aid workers are not killed in the crossfire, U.S. officials have said.
But Blinken’s extended tours in the region and public warnings have sometimes seemed to have little impact on the most right-wing government in Israeli history.
The country’s air and ground assault on Gaza has killed more than 35,000 people in the Palestinian territory, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry there.
Hamas fighters killed 1,200 people and abducted 250 when they rampaged through southern Israel on Oct. 7, starting the war.
“Arab public opinion has no faith in Biden’s statements and sees Blinken’s shuttle diplomacy over nearly eight months as futile,” said Mohammed Tal, a former editor in chief of Al-Dustour, one of the main newspapers in Jordan, where Burns served as ambassador between 1998 and 2001. Burns’ involvement “has actually given some hope to people in the region — he does enjoy a certain level of credibility.”
The CIA director’s role as an intelligence chief allows him to keep a lower profile and deal directly with Israel’s external intelligence agency Mossad. A veteran State Department official with years of relationships in the Middle East, Burns also has a direct line to the White House. That gets him high-level access in Middle East capitals, where officials often prefer to deal with top intelligence figures.