(Bloomberg) -- Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro said the United Nation’s Human Rights workers he expelled more than two months ago can return to Venezuela during a fourth visit from the International Criminal Court’s prosecutor Karim Khan. 

Maduro said he accepted a request by Khan to invite the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk to reopen his office in Caracas. “I’m ready to receive an envoy from Turk soon,” he said, speaking alongside Khan.

The ICC opened a technical-assistance office in Venezuela on Monday, with Maduro making a rare concession ahead of a Tuesday midnight deadline on candidacies for the election. Earlier, the government allowed at least two parties to register their support for the opposition’s unity candidate — a move that could be a wink to the US to keep a key sanctions deal between the two countries alive.

Venezuela ordered the UN’s human rights staff to leave the country within 72 hours in mid-February following a report by the local UN Fact-Finding Mission in which it “urged the government to end a wave of repression against opponents” that had intensified with the arrest of activist and lawyer Rocío San Miguel.

The continuous violations by Venezuela of a US-brokered deal with the opposition for a fairer vote led the US to effectively reinstate oil and gas sanctions last week. 

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