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Any conventional war against India will be lost by Pakistan, an ex-CIA officer advises Islamabad

Krati Kashyap | October 25, 2025 6:27 PM CST

In a significant piece of advise to Pakistan, former CIA operative John Kiriakou, who oversaw counterterrorism operations in Pakistan, said that Islamabad must come to the policy conclusion that a conflict with India would not benefit it in any way. He also claimed that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) thought that the two nuclear-armed countries would go to war after the 2001 Parliament attacks.

Source and Credit: ANI

#WATCH | On the question of fear of nuclear weapons falling into terrorists' hands in Pakistan, ex-CIA Officer, John Kiriakou says, "When I was stationed in Pakistan in 2002, I was told unofficially that the Pentagon controlled the Pakistani nuclear arsenal, and that Parvez… pic.twitter.com/iaKPpixhMZ

— ANI (@ANI) October 24, 2025

An true conflict between India and Pakistan would not result in anything positive since the Pakistanis will lose. I’m not referring about nuclear weapons here. I’m just referring to a traditional conflict. In an exclusive interview with news agency ANI, former CIA official John Kiriakou said that there is no advantage to continuously inciting Indians.

“India is unaware that Americans are in control of Pakistani nuclear weapons.”

Another startling admission came from Kiriakou, who said that when stationed in Pakistan in 2002, he was informed informally that the Pentagon was in charge of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons.

“I doubt that the Americans ever told India that the control of Pakistani nukes also lies with the US because of the vociferousness with which the Pakistanis have publicly maintained that they control their own nuclear weapons,” Kiriakou said in response to the question of whether this information was shared with India. However, I can categorically state that the State Department was urging both sides to fight if they were going to. It should be brief and non-nuclear. The introduction of nuclear weapons will alter the course of history. Therefore, I believe that both parties exercised restraint,” Kiriakou said.

Additionally, Islamabad received a warning from New Delhi that its nuclear blackmail would not be tolerated.