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The United States has granted a visa to Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif to attend a U.N. meeting in New York this week, two sources familiar with the matter said on Sunday, Reuters reported.

Had Pompeo not approved giving a visa to Zarif, Iran’s top diplomat and nuclear negotiator, it could have been a signal that the United States was trying to further isolate the Islamic Republic and perhaps closing the door to diplomacy.

U.S.-Iranian tensions have worsened since U.S. President Donald Trump decided last year to abandon the 2015 nuclear deal under which Iran agreed to curtail its atomic program in return for relief from economic sanctions crippling its economy.

They have taken several turns for the worse in the last two and a half months after Trump acted to try to eliminate Iran’s oil exports entirely because of U.S. concerns about its nuclear and missile programs and regional activities.

Since that decision, there have been two sets of attacks on tankers in the Gulf that Washington blamed on Tehran despite its denials, and Iran has downed a U.S. drone that prompted plans for a U.S. retaliatory air strike that was abruptly called off.