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

U.S. 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 U.S. 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."