I don’t understand our goals in Syria and I hate to sound like a Saudi apologist, but a Saudi Arabian goal of preventing Iranian advancement would at least be logical. That plus a desire to placate Sunni extremists would seem to me to match their actions.
Logical from their position... yes.
But is it logical for the US to save their worthless parasitic butts (perhaps again sacrificing American blood)? No it is not. The Saudis have done much more harm to us, then Iran ever has. Yet we treat the Saudis as an ally. Israel meanwhile is pushing us into giving the Saudi hyeanas more support (there was recently an interview with Netanyahu who was giddy about the good Israeli-Saudi relations).
With “friends” like the Saudis we truly don’t need enemies.
The Saudis and Qataris goals in Syria are twofold:
1) Replace Assad so that the Qatari oil/gas section in the Persian Gulf (called North Dome), which they share with the Iranian section (called South Pars), can be extended to and sold in Europe via a pipeline through Syria and Lebanon - this is advantageous for Saudis too. Assad has firmly said NO to SA and Qatar. Russia has her own interests there too.
2) Any replacement of Assad gov’t will be a Sunni and most likely a wahhabi/salafist proxy, which the Saudis and Qataris fund & support. Hence they think they can control them by giving them a share of Syrian land and oil/gas pipeline deal to divert their attention from trying to foment discontent in SA in particular to topple the regime.
Two other related facts:
a) Saudis and many of their satellite Gulf states have always had a problem with Iran, even during the Shah’s gov’t. They always felt threatened, one way or another. Note: SA and Qatar are artificial lands created & supported by the British post WW1.
b) IS, AQ and their Islamist offshoots are mercenaries who primarily work for money from their masters. Their religious ideology, which is that of wahhabi/salafist in line with Saudi/Qatari one is secondary and a tool for training & mobilising these 1st class terrorists & their recruits.
I think the current Jordanian king and his gov’t would be much more responsible leaders if they were to take over SA & its governance.