# Saudi influence 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: "Saudi influence in Egypt," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/saudi-influence-in-egypt/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*John Kiriakou's account of Saudi Arabia's role in Egypt, not merely supporting the government that displaced the Muslim Brotherhood but bankrolling it and ensuring its survival, which he places within a history of Saudi interference in Egyptian internal affairs reaching back to the nationalist revolution of 1958.*

- **His verb:** Bankrolling, not merely supporting
- **How far back he dates it:** 1958
- **The event he anchors it to:** The nationalist revolution in Egypt
- **Effect on any uprising:** It must fight Saudi money and Saudi weapons

**Saudi influence in Egypt** is, in [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou)'s description, both financial and old.[1]

## Bankrolling, not supporting

Asked about Egypt after the removal of the Muslim Brotherhood government, Kiriakou agrees that the Saudis back its successor and then sharpens the verb: they are not just supporting that government but bankrolling it and ensuring its survival. The automatic transcript renders the government's name as *"the CC government"*; Kiriakou is speaking of the administration that followed the Brotherhood's removal.[1]

## The longer history

He declines to treat this as a response to the Arab Spring. Saudi Arabia, he says, has a very long history of meddling in Egyptian internal affairs going back to 1958 and to the nationalist revolution in Egypt that year.[1]

## What it means for an uprising

The consequence he draws is the one that governs his wider pessimism about [change in the region](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/democratic-change-in-the-middle-east): anybody participating in a popular uprising is going to have to fight against Saudi money and Saudi weapons, which is why he expects the process to take decades.[2]

## See also

- [Democratic change in the Middle East](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/democratic-change-in-the-middle-east)
- [The U.S.–Saudi relationship](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/us-saudi-relationship)
- [Saudi aid priorities](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/saudi-aid-priorities)
- [Saudi Arabia and radicalism](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/saudi-arabia-and-radicalism)

## Sources

1. Former CIA Agent John Kiriakou Takes Us Inside The Saudi Ter (2015-09-23), at 14:10. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqN6mNL-dfI&t=850s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2015-09-23-mintpress-news-former-cia-agent-john-kiriakou-takes-us-insid/
2. Former CIA Agent John Kiriakou Takes Us Inside The Saudi Ter (2015-09-23), at 14:40. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqN6mNL-dfI&t=880s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2015-09-23-mintpress-news-former-cia-agent-john-kiriakou-takes-us-insid/

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