BAKU – The head of the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog said Tuesday he hopes meetings this week with Iranian officials, including the country’s new president, can lead to progress in monitoring the country’s nuclear program, a long-standing issue that took on a new urgency as Israel hit Iran twice in the middle rising tensions in the Middle East.

Rafael Mariano Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, will travel to Iran on Wednesday to meet for the first time with President Masoud Pezeshkian, who was elected in July. Grossi said he hopes to build on the positive talks he had with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi during the UN General Assembly in September.

“We have a problem that we need to solve,” Grossi said in an interview at UN climate conference in Azerbaijan. “It is this gap, this lack of trust, that we should not allow to develop into a self-fulfilling prophecy of using nuclear facilities as targets.”

He added: “There has been a somewhat difficult dynamic with Iran that we want to overcome.”

Iran is rapidly advancing its nuclear program while increasing its stockpile of enriched uranium to near weapons-grade levels, all in defiance of international requirements, according to the IAEA. Iran says its program is for energy purposes, not to build weapons.

Grossi’s visit comes as Israel and Iran have traded rocket attacks in recent months after more than a year of war in Gaza, which is ruled by Hamas, an Iran-backed group.

Grossi noted that international law prohibits attacking nuclear facilities and “it’s obvious that it’s something that can have radiological consequences.” The Biden administration said last month that it had gained assurances from Israel that they would not attack nuclear or oil sites.

A 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers put limits on Iran’s nuclear program, which the West fears could be used to produce nuclear weapons. The deal included the lifting of economic sanctions against Iran.

But that deal collapsed after Donald Trump’s 2018 administration pulled the United States out of it. This led Iran to abandon all limits on its program and enrich uranium to a purity of up to 60%.

Asked if the IAEA feared Iran might develop a bomb, Grossi said he had “no information to support that.” He added that the inspectors’ job was not to “judge intent” but rather to verify that what Iran says about its nuclear program is true.

Trump’s re-election last week raises questions about the if and how the incoming administration and Iran can get involved.

Grossi said he worked with the first Trump administration, which he said was engaged in “non-stop professional work” and is looking forward to working with the second Trump administration.

“Circumstances have changed in the sense that the problem has grown bigger than it was,” Grossi said. “The problem of not finding a solution.”

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