Kerry said on Friday that Obama “has asked all of us to think about various options that may or may not exist.”

The US secretary of state added that evaluation by necessity is occurring at this time and new options will be presented to the president when he calls for them.

“And when these options are ripe and when the president calls for it, there will undoubtedly be some discussion about them,” Kerry stated.

White House spokesman Jay Carney has said that the US president expected his national security team to constantly reevaluate policy options on Syria.

Carney said “regardless of where we were in the process, the president, as a starting principle on these issues, always tasks his teams, both on foreign policy and domestic, to not be complacent about the path forward.”

He added that Obama is “looking at other options or always asking for all the options that might be available to him.”

However, he said there is no military solution for the crisis in Syria.

“The crisis in Syria is a crisis. The circumstances on the ground are horrific. That is why we have to bring the parties together to try to compel them towards a negotiated political settlement because there isn’t a military solution here,” Carney told reporters on Friday.

He also acknowledged that there was “certainly frustration” that the Geneva conference about Syria had not produced tangible results.

The Geneva talks were held to contain the bloody crisis that has plagued Syria since March 2011. However, the conference has failed to reach a conclusion due to major disagreements between the Syrian government and the foreign-backed opposition coalition.

The war in Syria started in March 2011, when pro-reform protests turned into a massive insurgency following the military intervention of Western and regional states. The unrest, which took in terrorist groups from across Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, has transpired as one of the bloodiest conflicts in recent history.

NTJ/MB