in august 2013 the "wall street journal" reported that bandar had been appointed to lead saudi arabia's efforts to topple syrian president bashar assad. according these reports bandar acted as the lynchpin in arming the jihadis fighting assad. the us central intelligence agency considered this a sign of how serious saudi arabia was about this aim. the "journal" reported that in late 2012 saudi intelligence, under bandar's direction, began efforts to convince the us that the assad government was using chemical weapons.