Washington (AFP) – U.S. President Barack Obama on Thursday signaled there would not be immediate U.S. military strikes in Syria, saying that Washington was still developing a strategy on tackling the conflict there.

“I don’t want to put the cart before the horse. We don’t have a strategy yet,” Obama told reporters, explaining that the U.S. did not “have to choose” between Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Islamic State jihadist fighters.

AFP Photo/Saul Loeb