of Iran Missiles and drones against Israel “was a spectacular failure” with almost all the shells last weekend He could not hit IsraelDirector of the Central Intelligence Agency, William Burns, said this on Thursday.
Speaking at an event held at the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas, Burns said that the interception of the missile and drone attack showed the strength of the Israeli military and that it has “friends” in the world, including the United States and other countries. also helped.
“All together, the Iranians launched something like 330 drones and missiles,” Burns said. “Of those 330 rockets, only four or five actually hit Israel, and none of them did any serious damage.
“This is a reminder of the quality of the Israeli army,” he said. “It’s a reminder that Israelis have friends, starting with the United States, but others as well.”
President Joe Biden and other senior US officials hope that tensions in the region will ease somewhat, but said Israel was still weighing How will Tehran respond?
The Israeli government is “sitting here this afternoon thinking about responding to what happened last Saturday night,” Burns said.
“I think the broad hope of the president and politicians in the administration is that we will find a way to de-escalate the situation,” he said.
Ammunition shortage in Ukraine
Burns, a former career diplomat who became ambassador to Russia, said he visited Ukraine about a month ago and heard firsthand about the Ukrainian military’s critical ammunition shortage.
Burns said he was in Ukraine a few days after Russian forces captured the eastern Ukrainian town of Adiivka.
“I talked to one of the senior officers who was there and he described it in pretty simple terms,” Burns said. “He said, ‘We fought as long as we could, but the Russians kept coming and we ran out of ammunition.’
According to him, in the battle of Adiivka, the 2,000-strong Ukrainian brigade tried to stop the Russians with 15 artillery and 42 mortar rounds per day.
“They were overwhelmed, but it wasn’t for lack of courage or determination,” Burns said.
He said he feared more battlefield casualties in Ukraine if Congress did not approve a long-delayed military aid package.
Sleepless night
Asked what keeps him up at night, Burns mentioned the threat of terrorist attacks, the war in Ukraine, the conflict in Gaza and the risks posed by CIA operatives around the world.
But he also recounted an experience that literally kept him up all night when he agreed to attend training for new CIA undercover officers at the agency’s training site known as “The Farm” near Williamsburg, Virginia.
The overnight training course, which included members of the Army’s elite Delta Force, included an exercise in which CIA counterparts were taken “hostage.”
But no one told the cadets or Delta Force commandos that the role player who appeared to be a “hostage” for the exercise was Burns, who was strapped into a chair for the simulation.
“It’s like 4:30 in the morning and this exercise ends with a Delta team hostage rescue mission,” Burns said. Delta Force “was told that the major who ordered it was just a simulated situation where there were some CIA officers and someone was posing as a high-ranking CIA officer. They were captured and held hostage,” Burns said.
“So seeing the look on the young major’s face as he climbs the stairs to rescue the hostages and sees a real live CIA director tied to a chair is worth the price of admission,” he said.