Iran has agreed to let a team from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) visit in the next few days to talk about restarting camera monitoring at its nuclear facilities. The head of the UN’s nuclear agency said this is a positive sign that Iran may be willing to move forward with nuclear discussions with the United States.

Rafael Mariano Grossi spoke to reporters in Washington after his recent meetings with Iranian officials in Tehran. He, along with representatives from both the U.S. and Iran, expressed optimism following the second round of talks on Saturday regarding Iran's quickly advancing nuclear program. More technical discussions were expected to take place this week. "Iranian leaders were engaged with a sense of trying to get to an agreement," Grossi said. "That is my impression." The US wants to stop Iran from building nuclear weapons, while Iran is pushing for relief from sanctions that have hurt its economy. 

When President Trump withdrew the US from the 2015 nuclear agreement in his first term, Iran limited IAEA inspectors’ access to its nuclear facilities. Since then, the agency reports, Iran has increased its uranium enrichment and amassed a stockpile that’s closer to weapons-grade levels. Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, has long avoided taking the final steps needed to develop nuclear weapons, maintaining that the country’s nuclear activities are solely for peaceful purposes.

Recently, Iran resumed talks with the second Trump administration after facing threats of potential strikes from Israel or the US aimed at disrupting Iran's nuclear program. During a visit by Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Iranian officials agreed to allow a technical team from the IAEA to discuss resuming access to and monitoring of nuclear sites, among other related matters. Although this decision wasn’t directly connected to the US talks, Grossi viewed it as a positive sign, suggesting that Iran might be open to reaching an agreement in future negotiations.

"The IAEA is not playing a direct role in the talks, and Trump's Republican administration has not asked it to," Grossi told reporters. "That Iran and the US sought to resolve the issue peacefully was more important than whether UN nuclear monitors take part," he said. "But when it comes to ensuring Iranian compliance with any deal, he said, this will have to be verified by the IAEA." "I cannot imagine how you could put ... a corps of invented international or national inspectors to inspect Iran without having the agency's decades of expertise," he said. "I think it would be problematic and strange."