Iran and the United Nations nuclear regulator are extending a recently expired monitoring agreement by a month, both sides said on Monday, avoiding a collapse that could have pitched wider talks on reviving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal into crisis.

“The equipment and the verification and monitoring activities that we agreed (on) will continue as they are now for one month, expiring then on June 24,” IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi told a news conference.

The move gives breathing space to indirect discussion between the US and Iran that restart in Vienna this week. European diplomats had warned that failure to extend the monitoring pact would endanger those talks, which aim to bring the two countries back into full compliance with the 2015 pact.

The reprieve will only be brief, however, since the extension will expire soon after Iran’s June 18 presidential election, which is likely to bring in new interlocutors for the International Atomic Energy Agency and major powers.

He spoke soon after Iran’s ambassador to the agency, Kazem Gharibabadi, who urged major powers meeting in Vienna to make use of the window afforded by the extension. “I recommend that they use this opportunity, which has been provided in good faith by Iran, and lift all the sanctions in a practical and verifiable manner,” Gharibabadi said on Monday, according to state media.

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