In 2009, Qatar proposed to the (still friendly to the west) Syrian regime a pipeline backed by the Saudis and themselves which will take gas into Europe via Syria. But stupidly, in 2010 the Syrian president Assad made a decision probably influenced by Russia and Iran to back a parallel pipleline project funded by Iran and supported by Russia.
Then all hell broke lose in Syria.
This could be the holy grail of the war on Syria: Russia has like a monopoly on energy supply to Europe. Europe is jittery about that. They need their energy from a more trust worthy or diversified source. Who better than America's puppy Saudi Arabia in which American oil companies can take part? But for the Saudis, Qataris, and Kuwait to effectively transport gas into Europe, the pipe has to go through Syria.
And Russia should not be able to supply gas via Ukraine. But the US conquered and took over Ukraine in February 2014 via a coup supported by the CIA that overthrew the democratically elected Ukrainian President there. Russia was late in reacting to the Ukraine crisis and they couldn't do much except annex Crimea.
But then after the Syrian uprising supported and sponsored by the US totally decimated Assad's regime, Russia and Iran hurriedly beefed up support for Syria and continue to do so. And what we see is Syria turned into a big proxy batte ground for a greater geo political agenda which now includes egos of the nations involved.
This is how sadly the world works. Innocent people pay the price for these games. This is why the middle east is always in turmoil, it's the oil!