# Israeli drone factories in Serbia

> **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou.
>
> Cite as: "Israeli drone factories in Serbia," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/israeli-drone-factories-in-serbia/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*Five drone factories John Kiriakou was told the Israelis are building in Serbia, a fact relayed to him by members of a Serbian delegation who welcomed it on the grounds that Israel is effective against Islamists, and which Kiriakou treats as the same emotional play he sees used on Greeks and Cypriots.*

- **Number:** Five
- **Told to Kiriakou by:** Members of a Serbian delegation, at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum
- **Their reaction:** Pleased, "Bosnia are a bunch of Islamists" and "we need to combat them"
- **Kiriakou's reply:** "Guys, this is crazy"
- **The pattern he identifies:** The same play used on the Greeks, "the Turks are coming, you better start arming yourselves"

**Israeli drone factories in Serbia** came to [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) as new information during consultative talks with a Serbian delegation at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum.

He was told, he says, *"a shocking fact I wasn't aware"* of: that the Israelis are building five drone factories in Serbia.[1]

What struck him was the delegation's attitude to it. They were pleased, on the reasoning that *"Bosnia are a bunch of Islamists"* and *"because we need to combat them and we see how well they're doing against the Islamists in the region, we want to work with them."* Kiriakou reports his own reply as *"Guys, this is crazy."*[2]

He treats it as an instance of a general method rather than a bilateral arrangement: the same emotional play used on the Greeks and Cypriots, the neighbours are coming, arm yourselves, we will put the factories in your country, and answers it with a saying he attributes to his grandmother: *"better the Sultan's turban than the Frankish tiara."*[2][3] The Turkish version of the same dynamic is set out at [Israel, Turkey, and NATO Article 5](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/israel-turkey-nato-article-5).

## See also

- [Israel, Turkey, and NATO Article 5](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/israel-turkey-nato-article-5)
- [Israeli property acquisition in Greece and Cyprus](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/israeli-property-acquisition-in-greece-and-cyprus)

## Sources

1. John Kiriakou: The CIA Whistleblower Who Went to Prison for Telling the Truth (2026-06-08), at 57:38. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tr1NKUPsP-g&t=3458s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-06-08-ddgeopolitics-prison-for-truth/
2. John Kiriakou: The CIA Whistleblower Who Went to Prison for Telling the Truth (2026-06-08), at 58:09. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tr1NKUPsP-g&t=3489s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-06-08-ddgeopolitics-prison-for-truth/
3. John Kiriakou: The CIA Whistleblower Who Went to Prison for Telling the Truth (2026-06-08), at 58:40. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tr1NKUPsP-g&t=3520s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-06-08-ddgeopolitics-prison-for-truth/

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From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/israeli-drone-factories-in-serbia/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt