DAVOS — The head of the UN nuclear watchdog has called on Iran to be more transparent concerning its nuclear uranium enrichment and told Al-Monitor that the new US administration of Donald Trump could be open to an agreement with Tehran despite the former president withdrawing from the last nuclear deal in 2018.

In an interview on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency Rafael Grossi said his organization was continuing discussions with Iranian officials about clarifying the origins of artificial uranium particles that were discovered at three undeclared Iranian nuclear sites in 2019. 

"We have not been able to clarify those yet," Grossi, who met with nuclear officials in Tehran in November, told Al-Monitor.

Grossi and his negotiating team are holding these talks in tandem with wider discussions on an agreement with the United States over Iran's uranium enrichment, which the IAEA has repeatedly said has gone over levels of 60%, bringing it closer to the threshold of being able to develop its own nuclear weapons. Iran has denied that it is developing nuclear weapons.