Did Hagel and Kerry scotch the Syrian regime change operation?

[ProSense]

4. Where is

In other words, Washington and Tel Aviv are no longer considering "regime change" in Damascus, and agreed to help the Syrian Arab army maintain control of its chemical and biological weapons in the event of jihadists attacks.

...this information coming from? It gives the impression that the Israel is driving the decision. The commentary seems a bit conspiratorial with Israel at the center.

From the same site in February.

Everything is being done to avoid offending the Israel lobby and to facilitate Chuck Hagel’s confirmation as Defense Secretary. In the shadows, the puzzle is progressively being put together. The White House continues to repeat that Assad must go, while Vice-President Joe Biden travels to Munich to negotiate with the Muslim Brotherhood, represented by Moaz al-Khatib, and preparations for the Obama-Putin summit are underway. The sharing of the Middle East is not far off.

http://www.voltairenet.org/article177365.html

I'm not sure how the author is piecing together the assumptions made in the OP.

Here is a relevant excerpt of Kerry's comments with the Saudi Foreign Minister.

QUESTION: Thank you. Mr. Foreign Minister, is U.S. agreement last week in Rome to begin providing food and medicine to the Syrian fighters anything close to enough to speed an end to the war? You mentioned in your opening statement the Saudi view that the rebels should be – or the Syrian people should be able to defend themselves. Is this going to be enough to help them do that?

And for Secretary Kerry, are the arms that Saudi Arabia is already providing to the Syrian rebels at risk of falling into the wrong hands and basically being part of the problem that you have identified?

FOREIGN MINISTER SAUD: As to providing enough aid and security for the Syrians, Saudi Arabia will do everything within its capabilities to help in this. We do believe that what is happening in Syria is a slaughter, a slaughter of innocent people, and we just can’t bring ourselves to remain quiet in front of this carnage. Morally, we have a duty to protect them. I have never heard or seen in history or in our present time, it is the only time in a great while that a regime would use a strategic missile towards his people and he too is killing innocent children, innocent women and old men. He is hitting his cities diabolically at a time when we are concentrating either to get food or medication, he is choosing a time when there is more citizens in the area of bombardment than any other time. This cannot go on. He has lost all authority in that country. He does not have a role to play anymore. Nobody who has done that to his citizens can claim a right to lead a country.

SECRETARY KERRY: I think His Royal Highness has spoken very eloquently about the situation in Syria. And I would simply add there is no guarantee that one weapon or another might not at some point in time fall into the wrong hands. But I will tell you this, that there is a very clear ability now in the Syrian opposition to make certain that what goes to the moderate, legitimate opposition is, in fact, getting to them, and the indication is that they are increasing their pressure as a result of that. Believe me, the bad actors, regrettably, have no shortage of their ability to get weapons from Iran, from Hezbollah, from Russia, unfortunately, and that’s happening. So I think His Royal Highness has made the status of this challenge absolutely crystal clear. Bashar Assad is destroying his country and his people in the process to hold onto power that is not his anymore. The people have made it clear he’s lost his legitimacy.

http://www.state.gov/secretary/remarks/2013/03/205584.htm

These are comments made by Kerry a few days ago.

QUESTION: Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Secretary. I’d like to ask you about Syria. This week, discussions are intensifying among European Union members on lifting the arms embargo. Specifically, Britain and France are pushing for lifting the arms embargo and they’re hoping that the U.S. will support them. Given that the rebels are telling us that the U.S. is already training members of the Syrian rebel military in Jordan and other places, can you say whether you support a more robust arming of the rebels to strengthen moderate – the moderate forces there, or are you already moving in that direction?

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SECRETARY KERRY: Yeah. Well, let me say, first of all, with respect to Syria, we have consistently said, and I say again, the longer the bloodshed goes on, the greater the prospect that the institutions of the state of Syria implode, and therefore, the greater the danger is to the region and the world that chemical weapons fall into the hands of really bad actors. We do not want that to happen. We also don’t want the fragmentation and destruction of the state. Those state institutions are critical to the stability of the state, to its future, and the region.

So as long as President Assad continues to attack his own people with SCUDs, with aircraft, with tanks, there is an imbalance in this which is creating more and more refugees pouring into Jordan, pouring into Lebanon, pouring into Turkey. And that is becoming a global catastrophe.

So we do not stand – President Obama has made it clear that the United States does not stand in the way of other countries that have made a decision to provide arms, whether it’s France or Britain or others. He believes that we need to change President Assad’s calculation. Right now, President Assad is receiving help from the Iranians, he is receiving help from al Qaida-related – some elements, he’s receiving help from Hezbollah, and obviously some help is coming in through the Russians. If he believes he can shoot it out, Syrians and the region have a problem, and the world has a problem.

So President Obama’s effort is to try to change that calculation, but leave the door open for the possibility of the Geneva Communique to take hold, which requires the selection of individuals acceptable to both sides, which clearly means not Assad, who will form a provisional transitional government with full executive authority. The Russians have signed onto that, the United States, the global community. That’s the road forward. But you have to have a President Assad who is willing to appoint that independent entity. And as of this moment, he is not.

So that’s the effort in Syria. It’s to try to change the calculation. And President Obama is evaluating and will continue to evaluate any additional options available in order to make that happen.

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http://www.state.gov/secretary/remarks/2013/03/206370.htm