# Qatari money in Egypt > **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: "Qatari money in Egypt," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/qatari-money-in-egypt/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia. *John Kiriakou's explanation for Qatar injecting seven and a half billion dollars into the Egyptian economy: to annoy Saudi Arabia. He describes a long, close Saudi–Egyptian relationship dating back to the mid-1960s, a terrible Qatari–Saudi one, and an Egypt happy to take the money — including the year the Egyptians thanked the Saudis for their generosity with an uninhabited island in the Red Sea.* - **Amount:** $7.5 billion into the Egyptian economy - **Source:** Qatar - **Kiriakou's stated motive:** "To piss off the Saudis" - **Saudi–Egyptian relationship:** Close since at least the mid-1960s - **Qatari–Saudi relationship:** "Terrible, terrible" - **Egyptian gift to Riyadh:** A small uninhabited island in the Red Sea - **Egyptian epithet Kiriakou cites:** Umm al-Dunya — mother of the earth Asked by a viewer to explain Qatar's relationship with Egypt, and why Doha would put seven and a half billion dollars into the Egyptian economy, John Kiriakou gave a one-word answer and then the reasoning behind it. ## The motive "Honestly," he said, "to piss off the Saudis."[1] The money, on this reading, is not primarily an investment in Egypt at all; it is a move in a different quarrel. The two relationships he sets against each other are asymmetric. Saudi Arabia and Egypt, Kiriakou said, "have a very close relationship, and they have for a very long time — at least since the mid-1960s."[1] Qatar and Saudi Arabia, by contrast, "have a terrible, terrible relationship."[1] Given that, "any way that the Qataris can just get a jab in at the Saudis, and vice versa, they'll do it."[2] Knowing how close Riyadh and Cairo are, "the Qataris say, oh, we'll give money to the Egyptians and help the Egyptians" — in the knowledge, he adds, that "all it's going to do is piss off the Saudis."[2] ## Egypt's position Egypt, in Kiriakou's account, is neither the object nor the author of the manoeuvre but its beneficiary. "The Egyptians are perfectly happy to take the money," he said.[2] He paused on Egypt's standing in the Arab world, citing the epithet he renders as "the mother of the earth" — the idea, he says, that all Arabs sprouted from Egypt.[2] ## The island The detail Kiriakou uses to show how close the Saudi–Egyptian relationship actually is concerns a transfer of territory. After a year in which the Saudis had been "particularly generous" with them, he said, the Egyptians "gave Saudi Arabia this little tiny uninhabited island in the Red Sea as a gift to thank them."[3] A state that hands a neighbour an island by way of thanks is not one that can be bought away with a cash injection — which is, in Kiriakou's telling, precisely why the Qatari move is best understood as an irritant rather than a bid. His summary of Doha's calculation: "let us try to throw a wrench into that and see what sticks. That's what it's about."[3][4] ## See also - [Abraham Accords](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/abraham-accords) - [Israeli strike on Qatar](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/israeli-strike-on-qatar) - [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) - [Ted Rall](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/ted-rall) ## Sources 1. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-08-28), at 36:15. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86XYgK4nal0&t=2175s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-08-28-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/ 2. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-08-28), at 36:47. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86XYgK4nal0&t=2207s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-08-28-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/ 3. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-08-28), at 37:18. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86XYgK4nal0&t=2238s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-08-28-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/ 4. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-08-28), at 37:48. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86XYgK4nal0&t=2268s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-08-28-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/ --- From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/qatari-money-in-egypt/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt