Obama, top national security aides, meet on Syria

President Barack Obama met Saturday with his top national security advisers at the White House to plan the U.S. response to the Syrian government's alleged massacre of civilians with chemical weapons, the White House said.

Senior aides have publicly ruled out sending American troops into Syria or establishing a "no-fly" zone over pockets of the country – but the use of force, potentially missile strikes from ships or airplanes outside Syrian territory -- were very much on the table.

"We have a range of options available, and we are going to act very deliberately so that we're making decisions consistent with our national interest as well as our assessment of what can advance our objectives in Syria," a White House official told reporters by email.

Obama will decide what to do "once we ascertain the facts" of the alleged chemical weapons attack, the official said. Rebels fighting to oust Bashar Assad have charged that more than 1,300 people, many of them children, were killed this week by the regime. Assad's government has denied responsibility, and countered that the rebels themselves were behind it.

Obama and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel have publicly said that America's response will come soon.

"I think the international community is moving swiftly, first, in getting the facts, what did happen, and getting the intelligence right, and all the other factors that go into a decision that I believe will be made swiftly, should be made swiftly," Hagel told reporters aboard his plane on the way to Malaysia.

"If, in fact, this was a deliberate use and attack by the Syrian government on its own people using chemical weapons, there may be another attack coming," Hagel said.

Obama signaled an escalation of the U.S. role in Syria in a CNN interview aired Friday, noting that confirmation of a mass chemical weapons attack would threaten "core national interests" of the United States. At the same time, the president and other senior officials have repeatedly said that they are mindful of the potential downsides of any military action, including getting pulled into a deeper role and stoking anti-U.S. sentiment in the region.

Meanwhile, top military officers from the United States, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Qatar, Britain and France were set to meet in Jordan in the coming days. A White House official called it a "regularly occurring, long-planned conference."

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