IAEA Chief Grossi says there are no full-fledged negotiations between the US and Iran yet, but informal contacts are taking place, RIA reports

IAEA-channeled commentary on US-Iran contact sits in a familiar pattern: the agency's chief tends to surface as an intermediary or messenger at points when formal channels are dormant, and the distinction drawn here between informal contacts and full-fledged negotiations is the standard vocabulary of pre-negotiation phases. Episodes of this kind have historically followed a sequence of backchannel contact, then exploratory talks, then formal negotiation, with each transition typically telegraphed by intermediaries before it is confirmed by principals. The transmission channel to crude runs through the probability of eventual sanctions relief and Iranian barrels returning to market, so headlines at the informal end of the sequence have tended to fade quickly unless they are followed by named envoys, dates, or venues. What separates signal from noise in this genre is escalation of specificity: a move from 'contacts' to a confirmed meeting, a named mediator, or an agenda item such as enrichment limits or inspections access. Russian state media as the carrier is itself a tell, since Moscow has historically positioned itself as broker or spoiler in US-Iran diplomacy. Absent a named follow-on, the precedent is that this class of headline marks a stage, not a shift.