The White House hoped on Monday the US vote in favor of the United Nations Security Council sending monitors to Syria would decrease violence in the country, KUNA reported.
"We voted in favor of the UN supervision mission in Syria -- the vote establishing that and expanding it, and we believe it can help decrease the violence and lay the foundation for Syria's political transition", said White House press secretary Jay Carney in a press briefing.
"But we are sober about the risks and very clear-eyed about Assad's behavior with regard to the Annan mission and its failure to fully commit to a cease-fire or honor the other provisions of the plan, the Annan plan", he added.
Carney noted that the US still does not "believe that contributing to the militarization of Syria is the right course of action at this time".
"We are working with our partners and allies, as part of the Friends of Syria but also at the United Nations, to further isolate and pressure Assad and to make clear to everyone that siding with Assad is making a bad choice, a choice that will not wear well as time passes, because Assad has brutally murdered his own people. His regime will come to an end. It's a matter not of if, but when", he added.
Carney further affirmed that the measures taken by the US "working with the international community, assisting the opposition establish itself, providing humanitarian and other non-lethal aid to the Syrian people, is the right course of action to take. But there is no question that Assad's brutality has not -- has not ceased, even as it has abated at times during the course of the implementation of the Annan plan".
"We have to do everything we can to prevent these kinds of atrocities. It does not mean that in response to every action, using our military is the right answer. We cannot do that, and we should not do that in response to every action. There are other tools that we have, and we have to use them. And right now that is the case with regards to Syria, and that is the approach we are taking", he concluded.