Military intervention in Syria “is always an option” but at this time it is not the right course as it “would lead to greater chaos, greater carnage,” U.S. White House spokesman Jay Carney said.
“We do not believe that militarization, further militarization of the situation in Syria at this point is the right course of action,” Carney told a daily press briefing.
President Barack Obama administration’s top spokesman said the United States intends to keep working with the UN Security Council and UN peace envoy Kofi Annan to find ways to pressure Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad to end his military crackdown on citizens and resign from his post.
Carney also called this weekend’s massacre in the Syrian town of Houla “a horrifying testament to this regime's depravity.”
Over 100 people, including dozens of children and women, were killed in Houla in Homs province, in the May 25-26 attack that was one of the deadliest single events since the uprising against Assad began in March 2011. The UN Security Council on Sunday condemned the massacre, which took place shortly before Tuesday’s visit to Syria by Annan.
In all, over 10,000 people have been killed in clashes between the government and opposition forces in Syria since the start of the anti-Assad uprising, according to UN estimates.
