New CIA nominee Burns widely respected in US, pro-Iran nuke deal
Burns was significantly involved in the Obama era negotiations toward the nuclear deal.
By YONAH JEREMY BOBWilliam 'Bill' Burns, president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, attends the annual Allen and Co. Sun Valley media conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, U.S., July 11, 2019. (photo credit: BRENDAN MCDERMID/REUTERS)
President-elect Joe Biden’s announcement on Monday of William Burns as his nominee to run the Central Intelligence Agency will likely get wide bipartisan approval in the US. But it may cause concern in Israel regarding Iran.Burns served in the US State Department for 33 years in key posts in both Democrat and Republican administrations dating back to Ronald Reagan, including as deputy secretary of state during the Obama administration.“The American people will sleep soundly with him as our next CIA director,” Biden said in a statement.If confirmed, Burns would become the first leader in the CIA’s history whose lifelong experience comes from the State Department.“Bill Burns is an exemplary diplomat with decades of experience on the world stage keeping our people and our country safe and secure,” Biden said. “He shares my profound belief that intelligence must be apolitical and that the dedicated intelligence professionals serving our nation deserve our gratitude and respect.”Burns was not Biden’s first pick.His initial choice, former CIA acting director Michael Morrell, had been vetoed by some US Senate Democrats for defending the CIA against allegations of post 9/11 torture of terrorist detainees.Instead, Biden appears to have picked Burns due to his expertise on Russia and an impression that he will rally respect and legitimacy both to the CIA and in the intelligence community’s relationship with other parts of the government.He served as ambassador to Jordan during the Clinton administration and as ambassador to Russia during the George W. Bush administration.Burns was significantly involved in the Obama-era negotiations toward the Iran nuclear deal.
He has criticized President Donald Trump for pulling out of the deal and for the “maximum pressure campaign.” He has expressed doubts about the assassination of IRGC Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani.In a January 2020 op-ed for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where he has been serving as president, Burns and incoming National Security Advisor-designate Jake Sullivan wrote: “As we’ve argued before, we’re at this dangerous juncture because of Trump’s foolish decision to withdraw from the nuclear deal, his through-the-looking-glass conception of coercive diplomacy, and his willing hard-line enablers in Tehran.” “When the deal was in place, Iran remained an adversary – but US unmanned aircraft weren’t being shot down by Iran in international waters, Gulf shipping and infrastructure weren’t being hit by Iranian mines and missiles, and US personnel weren’t being targeted by Shia militias in Iraq,” they wrote.“Abandoning the nuclear agreement, on our own and with no evidence of Iranian cheating, started a predictable cycle of escalation and brinksmanship,” Burns and Sullivan wrote. “It is a cycle which Trump has accelerated with muscular bluster and ‘maximum pressure,’ unconnected to realistic aims or careful foresight.”Burns is highly intelligent and professional, but he is a strong fan of returning to the 2015 nuclear deal, Israeli defense establishment officials told The Jerusalem Post.Some former US intelligence officials told the Post Burns also may be more hesitant to take aggressive covert actions and strikes and may express more skepticism about hawkish Iran-related intelligence originating from Middle Eastern countries such as Israel.At the same time, unlike former CIA director John Brennan, who called assassinating Soleimani a war crime, Burns’s public comments about Soleimani’s killing seemed solely focused on whether the action was smart and would achieve long-term US interests and did not appear to oppose him as a target as a blanket principle.
