The chairman and members of the House Homeland Security Committee sent a letter to President Obama on Tuesday urging him to leave all options, including military action, on the table in the face of �our strategic enemy, the Iranian regime.�

The letter from Committee Chairman Peter King (R-N.Y.) and subcommittee chairmen Michael McCaul (R-Texas) and Pat Meehan (R-Pa.) urges Obama toward a �firm response� to �state-sponsored terror plots on American soil.�

Obama on Monday signed an executive order imposing new economic sanctions against any investment or provision of goods and services contributing to Iran�s oil-and-gas exploration efforts.

The congressmen wrote that current sanctions �have failed to effectively deter Iran�s actions and thwart Iranian intransigence.�

�Iran now seeks to expand its influence throughout the Western Hemisphere, most notably in Venezuela, and including the United States,� they wrote.

Last month, Iran was implicated in a plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to Washington.

The assassination plot �indicates that Iran�s leaders feel emboldened by what they perceive as American weakness, and fear no negative consequences for their increasingly provocative actions,� the lawmakers wrote. �To prevent Iran from building a nuclear weapon, and from further expansion of its terror operations, all options must be left on the table � including military action.�

The letter urges the administration to enforce sanctions against Iran�s central bank, expel Iranian and Hezbollah operatives from the United States, designate the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps as a foreign terrorist organization, conduct cyber and covert operations against the Iranian regime and continue to support democratic resistance movements in Iran.

�We believe it essential to send Iran a clear message: the US will not tolerate attempts to commit acts of terror in our Homeland,� the lawmakers wrote.

(Source: The Hill)