# The Saudi demand for a political appointee

> **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: "The Saudi demand for a political appointee," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-saudi-demand-for-a-political-appointee/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*John Kiriakou's account of a standing Saudi condition on the American embassy in Riyadh — that the ambassador must never be a career diplomat, the opposite of what most countries want, because Riyadh wants someone whose telephone call the president of the United States will take.*

- **The demand:** That the US ambassador to Saudi Arabia be a political appointee, never a career diplomat
- **How unusual:** 'Exactly the opposite of most other countries'
- **The reason:** So they can call the ambassador, have him call the president, and have the president take the call
- **The problem with a career diplomat:** 'The president''s never heard of you'
- **What it means in practice:** 'The reason why they want you in the first place is they want to have somebody who will have his phone calls taken by the president. That''s it'

**The Saudi demand for a political appointee** is a condition [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) says Riyadh has always placed on the American embassy there, and which he raised in September 2025 to explain why Saudi Arabia was the post being floated for [Eric Adams](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-eric-adams-ambassadorship).

He frames it as an inversion of the normal preference: *"The Saudis have always insisted that they not have a career diplomat as the US ambassador. They demand it, which is exactly the opposite of most other countries. The Saudis demand a political appointee."*[1]

The reason is access rather than status. *"Because they want to be able to pick up the phone, call the ambassador, and have the ambassador call the president, and the president takes the call."*[2]

A career officer cannot do that, however senior. *"If you're a career diplomat, the president's never heard of you. You can't call the White House in the middle of the night and say the king of Saudi Arabia wants to talk to you."*[2]

Kiriakou returns to the point at the end of his description of the posting, stripping it to a sentence: *"the reason why they want you in the first place is they want to have somebody who will have his phone calls taken by the president. That's it. That's the bottom line."*[3]

The corollary he draws is that the appointment of an unqualified but well-connected figure would suit Riyadh perfectly — *"as crazy as this might sound, the Saudis would be very happy to have Eric Adams as the US ambassador"* — whatever the Senate might make of it.[2][4]

## See also

- [The Eric Adams Ambassadorship](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-eric-adams-ambassadorship)
- [Saudi Arabia As An Open Air Prison](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/saudi-arabia-as-an-open-air-prison)
- [Kimberly Guilfoyle in Athens](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/kimberly-guilfoyle-in-athens)
- [U.S. diplomatic vacancies](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/us-diplomatic-vacancies)
- [Gulf security bargain](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/gulf-security-bargain)

## Sources

1. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-09-06), at 01:02. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_K7Ab0PsdM&t=62s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-09-06-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/
2. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-09-06), at 01:33. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_K7Ab0PsdM&t=93s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-09-06-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/
3. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-09-06), at 11:32. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_K7Ab0PsdM&t=692s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-09-06-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/
4. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-09-06), at 02:04. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_K7Ab0PsdM&t=124s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-09-06-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/the-saudi-demand-for-a-political-appointee/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt