Washington, DC: Former CIA officer John Kiriakou has revealed that the United States deliberately refrained from targeting Abdul Qadeer Khan, Pakistan’s nuclear scientist and notorious proliferator of nuclear technology, following direct intervention by the Saudi government.

In an interview with ANI, Kiriakou, who served 15 years in the CIA as an analyst and later in counterterrorism operations, said the US had detailed intelligence on Khan’s movements, daily routines, and whereabouts. Despite this, the Americans were instructed not to act due to pressure from Riyadh.

“A colleague of mine was dealing with A Q Khan,” Kiriakou said. “If we had taken the Israeli approach, we would have just killed him. He was easy enough to find. We knew where he lived. We knew how he spent his day. But he also had the support of the Saudi government. And the Saudis came to us and said, ‘Please leave him alone. Please. We like A Q Khan. We’re working with A.Q. Khan. We’re close to the Pakistanis…They named Faisalabad after King Faisal. Just leave him alone,’” he added.

Kiriakou described the US decision as a major policy failure. “This was a mistake that the US government made, not confronting A Q Khan head-on,” he said, noting that multiple CIA and International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) officials later confirmed that the White House had issued instructions not to target Khan.

“And it had to be because the Saudis were demanding it, insisting on it,” he added.

The former agent suggested that Saudi Arabia’s protection of Khan could have been tied to its own nuclear ambitions. “We often wondered if it was because the Saudis were also building a nuclear capability. I think that’s something we should probably be thinking about,” he said.

Khan, born in Bhopal in 1936, moved with his family to Pakistan in 1952 following the partition. He passed away in Islamabad in 2021 at the age of 85. Khan is widely regarded as the father of Pakistan’s atomic bomb and one of the world’s most infamous nuclear smugglers, having supplied technology to countries such as North Korea, Iran, and Libya.

On the recent Saudi-Pakistan Strategic Mutual Defence Agreement, Kiriakou said Riyadh might now be “calling in its investment.” He noted the extensive role of Pakistani personnel in Saudi Arabia’s military.

“Almost the entire Saudi military is Pakistani. No Saudi is going to join the military unless they’re going to make him a general. There are no privates or corporals who are Saudi. They’re all Pakistani. It’s the Pakistanis that protect Saudi Arabia on the ground,” he said.

Earlier this September, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan signed a “Strategic Mutual Defence Agreement,” pledging that any attack on either nation would be treated as an attack on both.

When asked whether a Saudi “nuclear umbrella” was realistic, Kiriakou was dismissive. “I don’t think it is realistic,” he said. However, he acknowledged the long-standing strategic depth of the partnership between Islamabad and Riyadh.

Reflecting on US foreign policy, Kiriakou criticised Washington’s alliances with dictatorships despite professed ideals. “We like to try to convince the world that we are a shining beacon of hope for democracy, human rights, and equality. And it’s just simply not true,” he said.