Ros-Lehtinen wants to sanction Syria beyond Obama's asset freeze

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) on Wednesday said she would soon introduce legislation that would impose sanctions against Syria beyond those announced by President Obama earlier in the day.

Obama announced his administration would freeze the U.S. assets of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad and six other high-ranking senior officials. Ros-Lehtinen welcomed this as a "positive step," but said more should be done.

"To address the totality of the Syrian threat, I will soon introduce bipartisan legislation that would strengthen and increase sanctions to deny the Syrian regime the resources to threaten its own people, the U.S., and our allies," she said. "As it has done against Syria's Assad and his cadre, the administration should immediately target Iran's Khamenei and Ahmadinejad for sanctions," she added.

Obama's sanctions were a response to violence by al-Assad against Syrian protestors. Ros-Lehtinen pressed the administration to more aggressively implement U.S. sanctions against Syria earlier in May.