The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday, Sunday, that the Director of the CIA, William Burns, is fighting an arduous battle in the secret negotiations that “aim to persuade Israel and Hamas” to agree on a ceasefire in Gaza, coinciding with the US President’s announcement. , Joe Biden, about a 3-stage road map to end the war in the Strip.
The newspaper notes that in early March, the intermittent talks to stop the war on Gaza were threatening to collapse again, and that the Arab delegates in the negotiations from Qatar and Egypt, who are working as mediators with the Hamas movement, accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of having no real interest in peace. While Hamas protested due to the pressure exerted on it by Egypt.
According to the report, the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), William Burns, and the chief American mediator, tried to calm nerves and push the parties to return to negotiating an agreement that would lead to a ceasefire and the release of hostages and prisoners before the Ramadan holiday. The talks broke off without reaching an agreement.
More than two months later, he and his fellow mediators are still trying, according to the newspaper.
It is noteworthy that US President Joe Biden announced on Friday what he said was a new three-stage ceasefire proposal presented by Israel that would lead to a permanent cessation of the conflict. He added: "It is time for this war to end."
Multiple rounds of negotiations and nearly a dozen trips by the CIA chief to the Middle East and Europe have yet to result in a permanent ceasefire, “amid suspicions that neither Hamas' military leader, Yahya Sinwar, nor Netanyahu really want it.”
“For Burns, 68, this may be the toughest task in a four-decade career of high-stakes back-channel diplomacy,” the newspaper says. He recently likened the effort to “pushing a very large boulder up a steep hill.”
The newspaper describes the logistics of the negotiations as hellish. Neither Israel nor Washington deals directly with Hamas, which it considers a terrorist group. Qatar shares every ceasefire proposal with the political wing of Hamas, and then it is transferred to Al-Sinwar, who is believed to be hiding in the movement’s maze of tunnels under the Gaza Strip, which makes the response come several days later.
Current and former officials in the United States and the Middle East told the newspaper, “The risks go beyond death and human suffering in Gaza and Israel.”
The newspaper attributes to Avner Golov, a former senior director at the Israeli National Security Council and vice president of Mind Israel, a security-focused non-profit organization based in Israel, that Burns’ work on a ceasefire and hostage release is key to launching other American diplomatic efforts in the region. . These include American hopes for reaching a historic agreement that would normalize relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel.
It is noteworthy that over the course of his career as a senior diplomat and intelligence chief, Burns held difficult talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin before the invasion of Ukraine, secret nuclear negotiations with Iran, and discussions about terrorism and weapons of mass destruction with the late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
Under President Biden, Burns has been personally involved in the three major security crises - Afghanistan, Ukraine and now Gaza. Burns has publicly acknowledged the privacy of his intense role in the Gaza talks, especially since his primary day-to-day job is to run the world's largest spy agency, tracking China, Russia, terrorism, and many other things.
His participation was strengthened in October, when Qatar, Egypt, Israel, and the United States agreed to form a secret cell to negotiate the release of hostages taken by Hamas during its attack on Israel on October 7. It quickly became an “intelligence diplomacy” channel, according to the newspaper. Burns' counterparts are David Barnea, head of the Israeli spy agency Mossad; Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel; And Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdul Rahman Al Thani.
The group, sometimes called the Quartet, scored a victory in late November, when it was able to secure a week-long ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, which saw the release of more than 100 hostages held by Hamas in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners from Israeli prisons.
The ceasefire evaporated with renewed fighting on December 1, 2024. Six-month efforts to revive and expand this agreement have faltered largely due to Hamas's demand for an end to Israeli aggression in Gaza, and Israel's insistence that the ceasefire be phased in.
In his recent public appearance, Burns said that Israel has shown great flexibility in its ceasefire proposals. He placed the responsibility on Hamas for its rejection. He told the World Affairs Council in Connecticut on April 19 that Hamas' uncompromising position "represents a very big obstacle right now," according to the newspaper.
As Gaza's mediator, Burns combines the roles of presidential envoy, arbiter and therapist, according to participants in the Gaza talks and US officials who have worked closely with him.
The CIA chief is calm. “He never shouts or threatens,” those who saw him at work told the newspaper.
“That's not his style,” said a former senior CIA official. “He can have difficult conversations but he never loses his temper.” .
In late January, Burns, Barnea, Kamel, and the Qatari prime minister were meeting in Paris in a new attempt to revive the talks when another mini-crisis erupted.
Netanyahu appeared on the microphone describing Qatar's mediation role as "problematic" because it allows Hamas' political leadership to reside in Doha. Qatar described the aforementioned comments as “irresponsible and destructive,” and Burns had to calm things down, people familiar with the talks said.
It is noteworthy that Burns has decades of experience in Middle Eastern history, resentments, and personalities, dating back to his first position in 1983 as a junior officer at the US Embassy in Jordan. His Qatari and Egyptian counterparts sometimes call him “Arab Burns,” and he is known to use parts of his broken Arabic in negotiations.
Officials say that in the Gaza talks he enjoys the trust of Arabs and Israelis.
Burns traditionally travels without fanfare, and the CIA has not officially confirmed his travels. He lands in foreign capitals, accompanied by three or four assistants and a security unit. He often meets with members of the local CIA station.
Those familiar with the talks said that Burns and the American negotiating team began in March to intervene more forcefully in the settlement proposals drafted by the United States for a ceasefire. They said that there are at least five such American proposals.
In early April, following an Israeli missile attack that killed seven aid workers at the World Central Kitchen, Israel came under intense pressure from the White House.
Shortly after, a new ceasefire plan was presented in Cairo that included flexibility on the part of Israel on key points, Burns said on April 19. Hamas rejected it, which the CIA chief described as a "profound disappointment."
Then in early May, as Burns moved between Middle Eastern capitals for about a week, it seemed as if Hamas and Israel had finally reached an agreement in sight, after Israel had made concessions by agreeing to a period of “sustained calm” — rather than a period of (more ambiguous) humanitarian truce” – and allowing the Palestinians to return to northern Gaza.
The newspaper claims that Hamas then backed down and renewed its demand for a permanent cessation of the Israeli military attack, and that on May 5, Hamas rockets hit the triple border crossing between Gaza, Egypt and Israel in Kerem Shalom, killing Israeli soldiers, and Burns traveled to Qatar to try to prevent the talks from taking place. Collapse.
Arab negotiators raced to present a modified proposal that included Hamas' demands. On May 6, Hamas announced that it had accepted what was essentially its own proposal, which surprised Israel and the Americans, but Israel rejected the proposal, and the talks broke off again.
Burns is currently in the region to push the parties to agree to President Biden's proposal.
