Veteran diplomat William Burns, who played a critical role in brokering the Iran nuclear deal with world powers during the Obama administration, was nominated to head the CIA by President-elect Joe Biden on Monday.
Burns, 64, a former ambassador to Russia and Jordan, had a 33-year career at the State Department under both Republican and Democratic presidents.
He became deputy secretary of state before retiring in 2014 to run the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
“Bill Burns is an exemplary diplomat with decades of experience on the world stage keeping our people and our country safe and secure,” Biden said in a statement.
“He shares my profound belief that intelligence must be apolitical and that the dedicated intelligence professionals serving our nation deserve our gratitude and respect,” the incoming president continued.
“Ambassador Burns will bring the knowledge, judgment, and perspective we need to prevent and confront threats before they can reach our shores. The American people will sleep soundly with him as our next CIA Director,” he added.
Vice President-elect Kamala Harris said in a statement: “Keeping our nation safe and secure requires intelligence that is apolitical and puts the American people first.
“A national security expert with decades of experience serving under Democratic and Republican presidents, Ambassador Bill Burns has a deep understanding of the global threats and challenges facing our country,” she said.
“He will lead the CIA with independence and integrity, always honoring our nation’s intelligence professionals. And President-elect Joe Biden and I will work closely with Ambassador Burns — and our entire national security team — to prevent and prevail over any threat against the United States of America,” Harris added.
As a deputy secretary of state during the Obama administration, Burns took part in high-level, secret talks with Iranians in early 2013.
The discussions, also attended by Jake Sullivan, Biden’s nominee for national security adviser, were intended to lay the groundwork for further negotiations in Geneva among Iran, the world powers — Britain, France, Russia, China, Germany and the European Union — and Secretary of State John Kerry.
In an interview with NPR in July 2015, Burns explained why the secrecy involving flying in unmarked government planes and keeping their whereabouts off State Department schedules was necessary.
“I think we were certainly convinced of the importance of that direct engagement, convinced that it was important to do it quietly because I think it would’ve been very difficult to get any traction in the glare of publicity. But it was really unknown territory. And, you know, I was skeptical that we could make much progress. And I think it’s fair to say that our Iranian counterparts were also skeptical given the history of this issue,” he said in the interview.
An interim agreement was reached between the countries in November 2013, and a final agreement was signed in April 2015. President Trump withdrew the US from the agreement in May 2018 and reimposed crippling sanctions against Iran that had been lifted as part of the accord.
The president criticized the deal for rewarding the regime with billions of dollars it could use to support militias in the Middle East that carry out strikes against US interests and containing little in the way of inspections to insure Iran is not cheating on the agreement.
“America will not be held hostage to nuclear blackmail. We will not allow American cities to be threatened with destruction. And we will not allow a regime that chants ‘Death to America’ to gain access to the most deadly weapons on Earth,” Trump said in announcing his decision to pull the US from the deal.
Biden has said he would look at rejoining the agreement, and the remaining countries participating have encouraged him to do so.
Burns was the executive secretary of the State Department and special assistant to former Secretaries of State Warren Christopher and Madeleine Albright; minister-counselor for political affairs at the US Embassy in Moscow; and acting director and principal deputy director of the State Department’s policy planning staff.
He received three Presidential Distinguished Service Awards and the highest civilian honors from the Pentagon and the US intelligence community.
Burns earned a bachelor’s degree in history from LaSalle University and master’s and doctoral degrees in international relations from Oxford University.