US President Barack Obama said Friday that the crisis in Syria would not likely end before he leaves office in early 2017 and reaffirmed his belief that there is no "military solution".

US President Barack Obama said Friday that the crisis in Syria would not likely end before he leaves office in early 2017 and reaffirmed his belief that there is no "military solution".

"The situation in Syria is heartbreaking, but it's extremely complex" Obama said in an interview with the Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya television network.

"It was not something that was triggered by the United States and it was not something that could have been stopped by the United States," he said, adding that "all too often in the Middle East region, people attribute everything to the United States."