'I have bleached most of my gray hair from dealing with Putin's Russia,' he said: Who is William Burns?

William Joseph Burns, born April 11, 1956, is President of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and former United States Assistant Secretary of State. He retired from the US Foreign Service in 2014 after a 33-year diplomatic career. Burns previously served as United States Ambassador to Jordan from 1998 to 2001, Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs from 2001 to 2005, United States Ambassador to the Russian Federation from 2005 to 2008, and Undersecretary of State for Political Responsibility. made.

He is the highest-ranking career ambassador in the Department of State and the second-serving career diplomat in history to be Assistant Secretary of State. On January 11, 2021, President-elect Joe Biden nominated him to head the Central Intelligence Agency.

Burns served as Deputy Secretary of State under former US President Barrack Obama. Joe Biden served as Vice President in the Obama administration.

The 65-year-old CIA Director retired in 2014 after rising to the rank of Assistant Secretary of State.

William J. Burns, who was the chairman of the Carnegie Endowment of International Peace, which is one of the oldest think tanks in the USA until he was appointed as the head of the CIA, has drawn attention with his articles that seriously criticize the foreign policy of the Trump administration, especially since 2020.

William Burns, who has master's and doctorate degrees in history from La Salle University in Philadelphia and master's and doctorate degrees in international relations from Oxford University, also published a book in 1985, entitled Economic Aid and American Policy Toward Egypt, 1955-1981.

The book titled “The Back Channel: A Memoir of American Diplomacy and the Case for Its Renewal”, in which Burns, who speaks Russian, Arabic, and French at a good level, penned his memoirs in 2019 entered the bestseller list in the USA and received many awards.

On the other hand, while Trump-era US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that they would declare the Houthis, who fought against the central government in the civil war in Yemen, a "terrorist organization", today's CIA Director, William J. Burns, announced that he did not have the same opinion on the subject.

Burns signed a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on December 22, 2020, arguing that "the Houthis should not be defined as a foreign terrorist organization".

Although the letter in question acknowledges that there is no sympathy for the actions of the Houthis and their negative role in the crisis in Yemen, such a classification “would not be beneficial to the national security interests of the United States, could worsen the situation of the civilian population in Yemen, and negatively affect the international aid provided. and complicate the UN-led peace negotiations”.

"Trump's decision to withdraw from Syria betrays our Kurdish partners"

Expressing his views on the Arab Spring and regional problems in the Middle East in his various contacts and articles, Burns criticized Trump's decision to withdraw US troops from Syria in an article he wrote in The Atlantic in December 2019.

Burns argued that the decision in question not only betrayed the Kurdish partners working collaboratively with the United States in the fight against ISIS," but also "put the allies in a difficult position and created chaos on the ground."

In the same article, the CIA Director said that Trump's "Deal of the Century" plan, which he put forward to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, destroyed hopes for a two-state solution, and said, "Never in history has American diplomacy delivered so many negotiation cards so quickly."

April 2022

Pointing out that he observed "constant complaints", "greed", "distrust" and "Passion for revenge" in Russian leader Putin when he was the US Ambassador to Moscow, CIA Director Burns said, "I bleached most of my gray hair by dealing with Putin's Russia."