Bandar bin Sultan Al Saud (Arabic: بندر بن سلطان بن عبد العزيز آل سعود; born 2 March 1949) is a member of the Saudi ruling family, a grandson of King Abdulaziz, military officer, and retired diplomat who served as Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States from 1983 to 2005.

Both of Bandar's parents were very young at the time of his birth: his mother Khiziran was just sixteen, and was working as a maid in the palace when she first came in contact with Sultan.

[3] By this time, the royal family relented and invited Khiziran to bring Bandar with her and live in the palace with Prince Sultan's widowed mother, Hassa bint Ahmed Al Sudairi.

He did and in exchange helped Carter win the support of South Dakota Democratic Senator James Abourezk for the Panama Canal treaty.

[10] During his tenure as ambassador and, before that, the king's personal envoy to Washington, he dealt with five U.S. presidents, ten secretaries of state, eleven national security advisers, sixteen sessions of Congress, and the media.

[11][12] The U.S. is widely seen as one of Saudi Arabia's most essential allies, but different members of the royal family feel different mixtures of trust and suspicion of the United States.

Therefore, Prince Bandar's intimate relationships with U.S. leaders and policy-makers are considered to be both the source of his power base in the kingdom, as well as the cause of suspicions within the royal family that he is too close to U.S. political figures.

[13] During the Reagan Era, he secured the purchase of AWACs surveillance aircraft despite opposition from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

[11] Pursuant to an understanding with the CIA, Prince Bandar provided $32 million to the U.S.-backed terrorist militants, the Contras, through a Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) account, as part of what later became known as the Iran-Contra scandal.

[21] He encouraged military action against Iraq and supported Dick Cheney's agenda for "The New Middle East", which called for pro-democracy programs in both Syria and Iran.

[13] In October 2005, King Abdullah appointed Bandar bin Sultan as secretary-general of the newly created National Security Council.

[13] 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.

[32] After that event, journalists began to report on Bandar's disappearance, noting that his last appearance in public had been with King Abdullah in Jeddah on 10 December 2008.

[32] Hugh Miles of the London Review of Books reported rumors that Bandar was undergoing surgery at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.

[32] Some rumors alleged that his coup was exposed by Russian intelligence services because of his frequent trips to Moscow to encourage cooperation against Iran.

[32] In October 2010, Middle East analyst Simon Henderson reported in Foreign Policy that Prince Bandar had made his first public appearance in almost two years.

[35] In what was perceived as a return to prominence, in March 2011, Bandar was sent to Pakistan, India, Malaysia, and China to gather support for Saudi Arabia's military intervention in Bahrain.

[37] Bandar was appointed director general of Saudi Intelligence Agency on 19 July 2012 replacing Muqrin bin Abdulaziz.

[40] It was also considered as a move of Saudi Arabia to display more aggressive foreign policy given the regional challenges that comes from Iran and Syria.

"[46] Bandar had been tasked with managing Saudi policy in the Syrian Civil War, but he was replaced in early 2014 by interior minister Prince Muhammad bin Nayef.

[59][60] In August 2013, The Wall Street Journal reported that Bandar had been appointed to lead Saudi Arabia's efforts to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

[28] 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.

Bandar was also described as "jetting from covert command centers near the Syrian front lines to the Élysée Palace in Paris and the Kremlin in Moscow, seeking to undermine the Assad regime."

[3] Before the 2000 U.S. presidential election was decided, he invited George H. W. Bush to go pheasant shooting on his English estate in a "Desert Storm reunion".

[3] After the September 11 attacks in 2001, in an interview in The New York Times, he stated, "Bin Laden used to come to us when America through the CIA and Saudi Arabia were helping our brother mujahideen in Afghanistan to get rid of the communist secularist Soviet Union forces.

[66] Bandar endured controversy over allegations in the book Plan of Attack by Bob Woodward that President George W. Bush informed him of the decision to invade Iraq ahead of Secretary of State Colin Powell.

[71] Zacarias Moussaoui stated on oath and wrote to Judge George B. Daniels that Saudi royal family members, including Prince Bandar, donated to Al-Qaeda and helped finance the 11 September attacks.

[71] Leaked information from the redacted portion of the 9/11 Commission Report states that two of the 9/11 hijackers' Saudi handler received $US130,000 in payment from Bandar's bank account.

[75] His son Khalid is the Saudi Arabian Ambassador to the United Kingdom[76] and is married to Lucy Cuthbert, niece of Ralph Percy, 12th Duke of Northumberland.

The palatial vacation home, called Hala Ranch, is larger than the White House, is perched on a mountaintop of 95 acres (380,000 m2), and includes 15 bedrooms and 16 bathrooms featuring 24-karat gold fixtures.