He is a saint compared to saudis, bahraini, kiwaitis gulf kings etc…But he is from alawite sect, an off shoot of shia sect and hence closely allied with iran lebanon etc.
After the US invasions, countries like iraq, Afghanistan libya egypt became more iran friendly, whereas previously they were openly hostile. This is causing saudis some serious stomach burn, at losing their clout, so syria has become they’ re easy scape goat to lash out at.
What they are hoping is to get a saudi friendly ( salafi) regime to do their bidding as opposed to irans… So they are arming and funding the rebels, whose orders are coming from a certain saudi based syrian in exile called adnan aroor. His hatred for iran and shias well known.