Things got very interesting today, shortly after John Kerry suggested in London that that Assad regime could avoid an attack if they surrendered all their chemical weapons within a week. Acting on Russia’s strong advisement, the Syrian regime quickly agreed to submit their stockpiles to international control. If this can be accomplished, it would justify the aggressive approach the Obama administration has been pursuing, although it might throw a monkey-wrench in the administration’s overall plans for regime change. According the the Associated Press, we may be witnessing a plan that was set in motion during the G-20 conference in St. Petersburg last week:

The surprise series of statements from top U.S., Russian and Syrian diplomats followed media reports alleging that Russian President Vladimir Putin, who discussed Syria with President Barack Obama during the Group of 20 summit in St. Petersburg last week, had sought to negotiate a deal that would have Assad hand over control of chemical weapons.

Putin himself said Friday at a news conference marking the summit’s end that he and Obama discussed some new ideas regarding a peaceful settlement of the crisis and instructed Kerry and Lavrov to work out details.

This could obviate the need to have a vote in Congress and basically solve all Obama’s short-term problems. The American people would be relieved that we didn’t have to resort to airstrikes; the Republicans would look stupid for not backing the president up; the threat of chemical weapons use and proliferation would be eliminated in Syria, and the international norm against the use of chemical weapons would be effectively reinforced.

On the other hand, Russia and Syria are still insisting that the rebels carried out the August 21st attack and that a full investigation will vindicate the regime. They could be calling Kerry’s bluff in order to trade chemical weapons, which are of limited military utility, for the maintenance of their current battlefield advantage.

Lavrov and al-Moallem said after their talks that U.N. chemical weapons experts should complete their probe and present their findings to the U.N. Security Council.

Al-Moallem said his government was ready to host the U.N. team, and insisted that Syria is ready to use all channels to persuade the Americans that it wasn’t behind the attack. He added that Syria was ready for “full cooperation with Russia to remove any pretext for aggression.”

Neither minister, however, offered any evidence to back their claim of rebel involvement in the chemical attack.

Lavrov said Russia will continue to promote a peaceful settlement and may try to convene a gathering of all Syrian opposition figures to join in negotiations. He added that a U.S. attack on Syria would deal a fatal blow to peace efforts.

From President Obama’s point of view, the offer on the table is quite possibly too good to turn down, but it won’t satisfy the hawks that want to get Assad out of power as soon as possible.