According to Syrian state television, Syrian Army soldiers stumbled upon chemical weapons when clearing out a rebel hideout in Damascus suburb of Jobar.
Yeah, i don't think we can trust either side when it comes to the truth. the thought of rebels deploying chemical gas to frame assad is not some conspiratory far fetched nonsense, its a real possibility. but, then again, the thought of assad launching chemical war heads is also highly plausible, and last, the idea that there was never any use of chemical warheads in the scale suggested a few days ago and its all a fraud, is also extremely likely.
About funding, i have heard of this possible suggestion, which i tend to favour, but wont be surprised if its nonsense, which will then bring back the other basic, well known explanation of the reason of funding which is religious.
the area is rich in natural gas, more so, qatar is super rich in natural gas. qatar needs to transfer said gas to europe (
http://www.thenational.ae/business/energy/qatar-seeks-gas-pipeline-to-turkey) which has an increasing demand for it (
http://www.worldenergy.org/documents/congresspapers/P000963.pdf). the only way to do so in large scale and efficiently is via syria on a landline and via egypt through its ports. russia is the leading suppliers of natural gas to the world. russia would like to keep it this way. the only thing that keeps qatar from having a direct land line to europe is assad, which is in alliance with iran and russia who both rather not see qatar gain advantage over them in that area. (they could detour through iraq, which is highly unstable and may result in what we saw in egypt where their gas pipes were the first thing to explode as the rebellion started).
Hence why qatar is the provider of funds, weapons and man power in the form of mercenaries to the syrian "rebels".