President Biden plans to dispatch CIA Director William J. Burns in the coming days to help broker an ambitious deal between Hamas and Israel that would involve the release of all remaining hostages held in Gaza and the longest cessation of hostilities since the war began last year, according to officials familiar with the matter.

Burns is expected to travel to Europe for the talks and meet with the Israeli and Egyptian intelligence chiefs, David Barnea and Abbas Kamel, and Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, these people said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive negotiations. The planned gathering has not been previously reported.

Egypt and Qatar have been key interlocutors between Israel and Hamas, the militant group whose deadly cross-border attack on Oct. 7 set off the war in Gaza. The two countries helped secure an initial pause in hostilities and hostage release in November. But tensions between the Israelis and Qataris are on a razor’s edge after leaked audio of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu captured the Israeli leader disparaging Qatar in a conversation with Israeli hostage families.

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  • Tinidril@midwest.socialEnglish
    51·
    10 months ago

    For those who don’t know who Bill Burns is, the choice to send him probably has little to do with his position as director of the CIA, and more to do with his experience as an accomplished diplomat. The following is from his Wikipedia article.

    In 1994, Burns was named to Time’s lists of “50 Most Promising American Leaders Under Age 40” and “100 Most Promising Global Leaders Under Age 40”.[49] He was named Foreign Policy’s “Diplomat of the Year” in 2013.[50] He is the recipient of Anti-Defamation League’s Distinguished Statesman Award (2014),[51] the Middle East Institute’s Lifetime Achievement Award (2014), and the American Academy of Diplomacy’s Annenberg Award for Diplomatic Excellence (2015).[52] Burns received the American Academy of Achievement’s Golden Plate Award (2022).[53][54]

    I’m not going to speculate on his odds of success, but his selection for this role is an indication of the seriousness of the Biden Administration in trying to make it work.