Central Intelligence Agency Director William Burns has emerged as the main player in US efforts to secure the release of hostages held by Hamas, tapping decades of contacts and leveraging his ability to move through the region quietly to tackle one of the US’s gravest foreign-policy crises.
Recent weeks have seen Burns — an experienced former US ambassador — meet with the head of Israel’s Mossad spy agency, David Barnea, as well as with top officials from Qatar and other regional players in the effort to free dozens of hostages Hamas militants captured in their Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
