UPDATE: CIA director says key to security of Israel, region is dealing with Iran

ADDS DETAILS

By Iclal Turan

WASHINGTON (AA) - US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director William Burns said Tuesday that the key to the security of Israel and the entire region is dealing with Iran.

“The key to Israel’s—and the region’s—security is dealing with Iran. The Iranian regime has been emboldened by the crisis and seems ready to fight to its last regional proxy, all while expanding its nuclear program and enabling Russian aggression,” Burns wrote in an article published in Foreign Affairs magazine.

“In the months after October 7, the Houthis, the Yemeni rebel group allied with Iran, began attacking commercial ships in the Red Sea, and the risks of escalation on other fronts persist,” he said.

He said that any of the Middle East’s “vexing problems” can be solved without active US leadership.

Noting that he has spent much of the last four decades working in and on the Middle East, he wrote: “I have rarely seen it more tangled or explosive.”

He said winding down the intense Israeli ground operation in the Gaza Strip, meeting the deep humanitarian needs of suffering Palestinian civilians, freeing hostages, preventing the spread of conflict to other fronts in the region, and shaping a workable approach for the “day after” in Gaza are all incredibly difficult problems.

“So is resurrecting hope for a durable peace that ensures Israel’s security as well as Palestinian statehood and takes advantage of historic opportunities for normalization with Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries,” he said.

​​​​​​​

- Conflict in Ukraine

Underlining that US and Western support to Ukraine is vital, he said: “For the United States to walk away from the conflict at this crucial moment and cut off support to Ukraine would be an own goal of historic proportions.”

Arguing that Russia lost the war in Ukraine on several levels, he said the Russian army suffered heavy losses and its economy was destroyed.

Comparing the situation the US is currently facing to the end of the Cold War or the post-Sept. 11 period, he said the US no longer enjoys “uncontested primacy” over “China’s rise and Russia’s revanchism” which poses daunting geopolitical challenges.

- ‘China is the bigger long-term threat’

”While Russia may pose the most immediate challenge, China is the bigger long-term threat, and over the past two years,” he said, adding that the agency has seriously reorganized accordingly in recent years and has established a unit focusing only on China.

Noting that China remains the only US rival with the intent to reshape the international order, he said China has the economic, diplomatic, military and technological power to do it.

China's rise is not a problem in itself, he said, adding that the real problem is Beijing's "threatening" actions.

“Rather than use that power to reinforce and revitalize the international system that enabled China’s transformation, (Chinese President) Xi (Jinping ) is seeking to rewrite it,” he added.​​​​​​​

*Gozde Bayar from Ankara contributed to this story