Prime Minister Naftali Bennett met Wednesday morning at the Kirya compound in Tel Aviv with Central Intelligence Agency Director William Burns. The two discussed tightening intelligence and security cooperation between Israel and the US, as well as the situation in the Middle East, especially Iran, and possibilities for expanding and deepening regional cooperation.
Mossad Director David Barnea, incoming National Security Council head Dr. Eyal Hulata, the Prime Minister’s Military Secretary Maj.-Gen. Avi Gil, and diplomatic adviser Shimrit Meir also attended the meeting.
Tuesday night, Mossad Director Barnea met with CIA Director Burns to discuss the Iranian nuclear issue and additional regional challenges facing the US and Israel.
Before taking over the CIA on March 19, William Burns was deputy secretary of state from 2011 to 2014. He retired from the US Foreign Service in 2014 after a 33-year diplomatic career. His memoir, “The Back Channel: A Memoir of American Diplomacy and the Case for Its Renewal,” was published by Random House in 2019. It was published in conjunction with an archive of nearly 100 declassified diplomatic cables.
Burns speaks English, French, Russian, and Arabic.