on 25 january 2007, saudi arabia sent bandar to iran for discussions on the crisis in lebanon and the kingdom even held talks with hizballah leaders, whom he had invited for the annual pilgrimage to mecca. after tensions with qatar over supplying rebel groups, saudi arabia (under bandar's leadership of its syria policy) switched its efforts from turkey to jordan in 2012, using its financial leverage over jordan to develop training facilities there, with bandar sending his half-brother and deputy salman bin sultan to oversee them.