Composition of the Saudi military
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The composition of the Saudi military is a point John Kiriakou has returned to across many years: the Saudi armed forces are staffed, below the senior ranks, by Pakistanis rather than Saudis.

The claim

Kiriakou states it flatly, there are no Saudi nationals in the Saudi military except at the highest ranks, lieutenant colonel and above; the rest are Pakistanis, and they are "hired help." Elsewhere he puts the cut-off higher still: "the only ones who are Saudis are the generals." He describes it as an ongoing joke in the Middle East that it is hard to find any Saudis in the Saudi military, and says that no Saudi will join "unless they're going to make him a general."

He says he learned it by observation: the men of the Saudi National Guard were speaking Urdu, not Arabic.

The explanation

Kiriakou's account of why turns on wealth on one side and poverty on the other. Saudis, he says, are "too rich... too fat and happy" to serve; Pakistan has so many poor people that Saudi Arabia can simply hire them into its military.

Consequences

He raises the point as a practical limit in the 2026 war with Iran. Asked whether Saudi Arabia might move from defensive to offensive involvement, he answers that it is possible and that Riyadh could send Pakistanis, but that he thinks it would rather wait the war out, absorbing a few missiles if it must, particularly in the Eastern Province, where the oil fields are. He also connects the arrangement to the Saudi,Pakistan mutual defence pact, reading it as Saudi Arabia calling in an investment.

Restated in 2026

Explaining during the 2026 Iran war why a Saudi military response to Iran was unlikely, John Kiriakou restated the point he says always earns him abuse: "There are very few Saudis in the Saudi military. They're almost all Pakistanis."

His division is by rank: "The leadership are Saudis. The generals, the colonels, they're all Saudis. But the lower-level officers and all the grunts, they're all Pakistanis." The consequence for the war is motivational, "they don't really care one way or the other. They just do as they're told."

What he expects Riyadh to do instead is at the Hajj ban as leverage.

See also

- 2026 Iran war
- Saudi nuclear program
- A.Q. Khan
- Saudi-Iran diplomatic rivalry
