A group of 10 Senate Republicans on Friday called on the administration to seek to censure Iran at the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Board of Governors meeting, which begins on Monday.

“The United States must demonstrate leadership at the IAEA and encourage the international community to uphold its non-proliferation standards. The stakes could not be higher,” the senators wrote in a letter to Secretary of State Tony Blinken, citing both Iran’s nuclear enrichment activities and its expanded terrorist proxy activity in the months since Oct. 7.

“As the March meeting approaches, the United States must move beyond rhetoric and take action to penalize the Iranian regime for its repeated violations of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and its obligations under the IAEA Safeguards Agreement,” they continued. 

The call also comes days after an IAEA report found that Iran had reduced its stockpile of highly enriched uranium, while increasing its stocks of uranium enriched to lower purity. Experts say that Iran can still quickly produce weapons with its current stockpile, and some speculate that the reduction in stockpiles was geared toward avoiding a censure.

“The slight downturn in Iran’s stockpile of 60% enriched uranium is but another political ploy by Tehran following a year of throttling enrichment rates, to avoid censure at the IAEA and scrutiny over outstanding transparency issues,” Behnam Ben Taleblu, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Jewish Insider. “Make no mistake, despite the dilution of some of Iran’s 60% stockpile, the regime’s overall stockpiles of enriched uranium continues to grow, meaning the move will matter very little when calculating breakout potential.”

The senators said the U.S. should also push for the U.N. Security Council to formally review Iran’s nuclear program, so as to “maintain a clear and consistent standard of institutional treatment toward Iran’s nuclear advances,” arguing that “special treatment” will not prompt Iran to de-escalate.

They asked the administration to report back to them by March 11 on the action it takes at the meeting and its reasoning for doing so.

The letter, led by Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), was also signed by Sens. Marco Rubio (R-FL), Tom Cotton (R-AR), Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), Rick Scott (R-FL), Bill Hagerty (R-TN), Pete Ricketts (R-NE), Thom Tillis (R-NC), Mike Braun (R-IN) and James Lankford (R-OK). 

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX) separately called for the administration to seek a formal finding that Iran is not compliant with the non-proliferation treaty and that seek a referral to the Security Council.