President Obama’s top spokesman called the stepped-up bombing against civilians in the Syrian city of Aleppo and the ensuing bloodshed “deeply distressing,” but declined to say whether the administration is considering contingency plans to respond if the city falls.

“The kind of action that I’ve been talking about is the kind of conversation that we’ve been having through the United Nations and a number of bilateral conversations that the U.S. has been engaged in in the region,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters Thursday.