US Secretary of State John Kerry’s Jan. 5 remarks in Jerusalem — namely that “al-Qaeda, who are trying to assert their authority not just in Iraq but in Syria … are the most dangerous players in that region” — will certainly not be welcome news to many of Washington’s friends in the Gulf. The Saudis in particular remain committed to Washington’s now passé “Assad must go” policy, and are prepared to sup with the devil in pursuit of this now-unattainable objective.

Kerry’s remarks suggest Washington’s reluctant conclusion that arch nemesis Bashar al-Assad may have been right … on this point at least. Without a doubt, it is Washington more than Assad that has been forced by developments in the war to “change its calculations,” including the narrative about the jihadist-dominated opposition. Assad’s staying power and the failure of the opposition to create a viable alternative to the regime have broadened the space for a US reconsideration of President Barack Obama’s precipitous and destructive declaration breaking with the regime in August 2011.

Kerry, with the Washington establishment reluctantly but obediently in tow, is now saying that the jihadists marauding throughout the Fertile Crescent are more dangerous than the butcher of Damascus, who refuses to die, and indeed whose fortunes have been resurrected out of the inferno that is Syria today. These al-Qaeda wannabes, incapable of anything but destruction, are more dangerous even than the Iranians, who, we are warned, will at any moment have their finger on the Bomb.

Until recently, the United States all but ignored what was and remains the defining regional dimension of Syria’s war — seeing it simply as a means for reducing Iranian power and expanding an idealized dream of a secular and democratic Arab Spring.