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The CAM Mayors Summit Against Antisemitism, the organization's largest such gathering to date, culminated in the launch of the Municipal Antisemitism Action Index, a pioneering tool that evaluates how effectively cities combat antisemitism and protect Jewish residents.

"Antisemitism is at an all-time high, and with Jews around the world feeling unsafe in their communities, we felt that those who are most likely to effect change for the better are local leaders," CAM Chief Executive Officer Sacha Roytman Dratwa told the organization. "The unprecedented attendance at these emergency summits reflects the urgency of our mission."

The Beverly Hills location carried particular significance given Southern California's challenges with antisemitism, especially on college campuses. At the nearby University of California, Los Angeles, pro-Hamas demonstrations have created what Jewish students describe as a hostile environment, including allegations of discriminatory hiring practices and students being prevented from entering classes.

San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria emphasized the crucial role of municipal leadership. "Mayors are the most accessible and visible leaders in people's lives. When acts of hate occur in your city, it threatens and undermines stability, and they must be addressed with decisive action," Gloria said. "Rising antisemitism is a local issue where local action can have a profound impact."

The summit's urgency was underscored by a CAM survey released Oct. 7, revealing that approximately 3.5 million of America's 6 million Jews experienced antisemitic incidents last year.

Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis reflected on recent events: "The horror of October 7, and the challenges that followed, have left an indelible mark on our lives. If it starts with antisemitism, when and where will it end? We must remain steadfast, protect those in need – and educate."

In Vienna, the United Against Antisemitism summit, organized in partnership with the European Leadership Network (ELNET), brought together leaders from politics, academia, and civil society to discuss strategies against antisemitism in education, culture, sports, and digital spaces.

"Antisemitism is a global challenge without national borders. Since October 7, we have seen a resurgence of antisemitism related to Israel in the streets of Europe," said Executive Director of ELNET-Germany Carsten Ovens. "The Vienna conference provides a central platform for deepening dialogue, developing new approaches, and formulating concrete actions and steps against Jew-hatred."

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"The Viennese Café is an institution of a special kind which is not comparable to any other in the world," Stefan Zweig wrote about his hometown, the glorious capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and now the capital of Austria. When Austria became part of the Third Reich in 1938, Zweig had to leave for good, and as we all know, he would never return to Vienna. Likewise, the scene of the Viennese Café that he adored would never recover from World War II.

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Many of the coffeehouses quickly reopened after the war had ended to show that the destruction has not hurt their spirit. On the surface, business was back – the marble tables were standing; the newspapers were placed on the stands; the pleasant aroma of coffee spread all over. But this was a mirage. The backdrop may have been restored, but it was lifeless.

The Viennese coffeehouse scene was created to a large extent by Jews who would frequent them for many generations. The annihilation of the Jewish community emptied the physical shell of its inner greatness. Of course, even today tourists from all over the world come in droves to enjoy Vienna's famous coffeeshops in order to experience some nostalgic era, but this is akin to visiting the pyramids: You see what's left of a large civilization, and this only highlights the fact that it's gone.

Austria was not the first European nation to get a taste of the black beverage, but it quickly got hooked on it. According to the accepted version of events, the first Viennese Café was opened in the late 17th century by a Ukrainian nobleman called Jerzy Franciszek Kulczycki, one of the heroes in the 1683 Battle of Vienna, when the Christian armies defeated the Turkish invaders.

Kulczycki was in Vienna in 1683 when the Ottoman Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa Pasha placed the city under siege. Thanks to Kulczycki's command of the Turkish language and familiarity with Islamic customs, he managed to escape Vienna and pass unnoticed through the Turkish garrisons. In doing so, he managed to relay invaluable intelligence between Vienna and the forces that had been sent to help it break the siege.

In the big battle that eventually unfolded, the Christians managed to crush the Ottomans and Kulczycki was hailed as a hero. In appreciation of his resourcefulness, he was awarded benefits, awards, and practically a free hand in taking whatever he wanted from what the fleeing Ottomans had left behind.

Legend has it that he shocked many when instead of taking the most valuable spoils from the loot – such as weapons – he only wanted to take with him 300 sacks of coffee beans. Everyone around him was convinced that the actual contents of those sacks were just camel feed, but Kulczycki, who had spent some of his years in the Ottoman empire as a young man, knew full well what the coffee beans could be used for.

Kulczycki knew how to make coffee from the beans, but he was also well aware of the coffee scene in the Ottoman Empire and what its allure could be. In order to introduce his fellow Viennese residents to the wonders of coffee, Kulczycki made sure it would become affordable and accessible. Kulczycki knew a thing or two about proper marketing well before it had become a profession and simply walked the streets of the city while offering free tastings of this new beverage.

He went on to open the first Viennese coffeehouse, calling it the "House under the Blue Bottle." To attract customers who were still very much new to drinking something other than alcohol, he carried out two additional masterstrokes in marketing. First, he made sure that add some exotic element by serving it in traditional Turkish garbs. He then adapted the traditional black coffee to make it more acceptable to the Viennese palate: He added milk and sugar.

There is also an alternative version to this story, which attributes the introduction of coffee to Vienna to the Armenian merchant Johannes Diodato. Regardless, there is general consensus that Kulczycki was the chief of the coffee merchant guild after the city became a coffee powerhouse. The two figures – Kulczycki and DIodato – are both memorialized in Vienna, so the virtual spat over who was first has never been fully settled.

Beans, affinity, and spiritualism

The great leap forward of the coffee scene in Vienna took place much after the pioneering duo had left for greener pastures. This time it was not the Ukrainians or Armenians who were at the forefront, but the Jews. Before that could happen, there was the challenging period of 1803-1813, during the height of the Anglo-French Wars, when coffee beans were scarce in the capital because of the geopolitical situation, and they were given permission to serve wine instead.

The golden age of the Viennese coffeehouse began in the second half of the 19th century. By 1830, there were already 80 cafés in the city. Some 50 years later, their numbers would reach 300, and by the early 20th century the figure stood at roughly 600. In a way, the changing nature of the cafes was a microcosm of the changing world. In the mid-19th century, the cafés were for men only, but soon enough entire families would sit there, and by the time the 20th century came along, women could sip coffee on their own.

This period coincided with the realization among many Jews across the Austro-Hungarian Empire that they had to integrate into the general society. They began enrolling in universities, made inroads in new occupations that were both prestigious and rewarding, and of course, flocked to the capital.

At every café, you would see a distinct clientele. Café Schwarzenberg was a hub for business people; Café Parsifal would become the preferred spot for members of the philharmonic orchestra; Café Rebhuhn was the place where journalists would work; Café Central was the place where intellectuals gathered.

Many of the Jews began assimilating but society was not overly keen on having them integrate to the fullest extent, especially if they refused to convert to Christianity. Faced with antisemitism, many Jews opted to sit in cafés, where there were no real barriers. This atmosphere was magic for Jews because they felt a sense of connection. The Viennese café had become the alternative to the synagogue, their spiritual home. Moreover, it was the linchpin that held their lives together.

The Viennese café would serve food and drinks, but what drew the masses was the added value it offered. The customers appreciated the fact that this was a place where they could sit and exchange views, make friends and enemies, pick up their mail and post their responses, shower praise or heap criticism on people, as well as play chess or cards. In other words: They lived in the café.

One of those cafe regulars was Gustav Grüner, who coined the phrase: "A true coffeehouse guest is someone who, when leaving, puts his chair on the table by himself." This was clearly his way of telling how long people should stay at a coffeehouse. Grüner practiced what he preached: His café hopping would only end at 4 a.m.

A house, more than just for coffee

Naturally, the more coffeehouses became a place for social gatherings, the more they catered to a specific clientele. At Café Schwarzenberg, the oldest among the cafés on the Vienna Ring Road, the regulars would normally be those who worked in finance or business. Café Parsifal was the place where the philharmonic orchestra's players would gather with their close associates, and so forth. Café Rebhuhn, which was founded in the 18th century, was the watering hole for journalists, and Café Griensteidl was the place for writers and poets who formed part of the Young Vienna (Jung-Wien) group of intellectuals, including Hugo von Hofmannsthal,  Richard Beer-Hofmann, Arthur Schnitzler, and Hermann Bahr.

At Café Central, where intellectuals would gather, you could find the writer Peter Altenberg, the founder of the school of individual psychology Alfred Adler, the historian Egon Friedell, the journalist and author Alfred Polgar, architect Adolf Loos and the mathematician, novelist Leo Perutz, and of course, Theodor Herzl, the founder of political Zionism.

They would be accompanied by members of the Vienna Circle of logical positivists. In the big hall on the first floor, the chess players would play and play to the point that the café would often be referred to as "the Chess Academy." Their small apartments, whose atmosphere was in stark opposition to that of the café, were just for sleeping because their waking hours were dedicated to the café. It is no wonder, then, that in the address book for the residents of Vienna Altenberg's residence was listed as "Café Central, Wien."

Around the tables of the Café Landtmann, near the city hall and the national theater Burgtheater, the celebrities of those days would sit, including Sigmund Freud, Gustav Mahler, Emmerich Kálmán, Felix Salten, Max Reinhardt, and Oskar Kokoschka.

Most of the artists preferred Café Museum, whose internal design was the making of Loos himself. Unlike other coffeehouses, which had the Thonet chairs designed by Austrian Jew Michael Thonet, the furniture in Café Museum was influenced by the desire for simplicity and functionality, and as a consequence, the place was often dubbed Café Nihilismus (café nihilism).

Some celebrities would keep alternating cafés (including Freud, who would sometimes visit Café Central). Others would become regulars at multiple cafes simultaneously, pledging their faith to their preferred coffeehouse at all costs, considering it a crucial part of their daily lives. For them, the coffeehouse was their home, perhaps even more than then real place of residence.

Newspapers and shortbread

The story of District Court Judge Reiter underscored what it meant to be a regular at the Viennese Café. His honor would arrive every day at 4 p.m. sharp and sit at the same table at Café Colosseum, immediately being served a melange with whipped cream and two horn-shaped shortbreads. He would then be handed the evening papers and all other national and international newspapers, pay, and finally leave – without uttering a word.

Generations of waiters would be trained on how to properly serve the judge. Then one day, the unthinkable happened: Two waiters were quarreling with the owner and then stormed out. When the judge arrived at his designated time, no one was there to wait his table. At 4:06 p.m., the crestfallen judge turned to the substitute waiter and sent him to Café Hacker across the road to bring his Melange with the whipped cream and two horn-shaped shortbreads

There was often a joke that in Vienna coffeehouses that if you went there, you would consume time and occupy a seat but you would end up paying only for coffee. Even if some of the regulars thought this was too pricey, they would never even entertain the thought of giving up their favorite pastime. It is often said that Zweig would often find himself without money to pay the bill and then he would turn to the waiter and ask, "Can you please keep this table for me. I will go drink my coffee at home and then come back."

During the 1920s, many of the city's intellectual elite relocated from Central and Museum to the Jewish-owned Café Herrenhof. It became a powerhouse of Judeo-Viennese culture with colorful figures descending on it every day. The thoughts and ideas they articulated would fly far and wide, well beyond the walls of the coffeehouse.

One example was the brilliant Jewish jurist and card player Hugo Sperber. When asked how long a game would last, the eccentric lawyer would respond with one of two answers. If he answered, "Unfortunately, I have a court appearance tomorrow," it was understood that he would not be able to play long because he would have to get a good night's sleep. The other response, "Until the students arrive," was a well-known reference to the Passover Haggadah, meaning, until dawn.

As for the brews available in the coffee shops, there was a wide variety. They would have to choose the kind of drink (which usually referred to the ratio of coffee to milk) and its size ("nut-cup", "piccolo" or "teacup"). Melange, for example, had equal amounts of coffee and milk. In a Brauner, you would find the coffee to be dominant and in others, milk was most of the beverage.  At a later stage, there was also a variety of combinations and variations that could include ice cream, ice cubes, rum, and a whole host of glasses.

The sophisticated waiters at Herrenhof had a paint-color scale with 20 different shades of brown, each with its own number. The regulars would choose their preferred number and got the coffee in the color of their choice. The numbers would be meaningless in any other coffeehouse, and even the types of coffees would have their own nomenclature in the Herrenhof. If you ordered a Sperber Turk, the waiter would know that your choice is Turkish coffee with a double shot along with two cubes of sugar. This was the coffee that Sperber would ask for before important legal proceedings.

Humanity's heritage

After the Anschluss, the golden era of the Viennese coffeehouse came to an abrupt end. Cafe Herrenhof was seized from its Jewish owner and no Jewish customers were allowed in. The lucky few Jews managed to flee the country, but others were persecuted and murdered. Nevertheless, in the Herrenhof, they continued to serve the coffee to Aryans who would frequent it all through the war, and the headwaiter Franz Hnatek continued to carry the baton as he had done since its founding in 1918.

When news broke that the Allies had landed on the beaches of Normandy, it was all too clear where the pendulum was shifting in the war. Hnatek whispered into the ears of one of the patrons who could hardly be suspected of being a Nazi sympathizer: "Does this mean that the other gentlemen are coming back soon?"

The ever-so energetic Hnatek knew the world only through the prism of his clients, or rather through their presence or absence. Most of his customers would never return. Only a handful of the Jews of the city, which in 1938 stood at 250,000, survived the Holocaust.

With the disappearance of the Jews, the routine that had been built around the Viennese coffeehouse came to an end, even if the tourist information centers claim otherwise. We can at least take solace in that UNESCO has listed the Viennese Coffee House Culture in its inventory of Intangible Cultural Heritage institutions.  The memory, at least in that regard, will live on.

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While the world's attention has been focused on Ukraine, the Biden administration has also been racing with world global toward restoring the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran.

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After months of negotiations in Vienna, the various sides have indicated a new deal is close, perhaps in the coming days. But instead of the "longer, stronger" agreement originally promised by the US, the deal is expected to do little more than reinstate the original pact, whose key restrictions on Iranian nuclear activity expire in a few years.

This modest accomplishment appears to be the best the Biden administration can hope for at a time when it is restrained by Congress at home, and overwhelmed abroad with the Ukraine crisis and longer-term challenges such as China and climate change. But it is setting off alarm bells in Israel, whose leaders have grown increasingly vocal in their condemnations of a deal they fear will not prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.

On Wednesday, Iran said its top nuclear negotiator was returning to Tehran for consultations, suggesting a breakthrough in its discussions is not imminent.

"Nuclear talks in Vienna are reaching a sensitive and important point," Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian told a news conference with his Omani counterpart in Tehran.

"Overall, we are optimistic about the Vienna talks so far, and we hope that some sensitive and important issues will be resolved in negotiations with a realistic approach by the West."

Oman's foreign minister Sayyid Badr Albusaidi arrived in Tehran on Wednesday for talks with his Iranian counterpart, state media reported, with the visit scheduled to focus on bilateral and international affairs, the IRNA news agency said.

Oman has often acted as a go-between to help facilitate back-door diplomacy between the US and Iran, sometimes involving the release of prisoners.

The diplomatic visit raised speculation that Oman may get involved as an intermediary in the ongoing nuclear talks, or deliver a US message to Iran.

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Many issues in a range of areas remain unresolved in indirect talks between Iran and the United States on reviving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, a source close to the talks said on Friday.

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"In every single aspect of the [unfinished] document [outlining a deal] there are issues that are still under consideration," the source told reporters, adding that while negotiations were heading in the right direction they "do not have all the time in the world."

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said Friday that a renewed deal with Iran on curtailing its nuclear program remained "possible" as talks in Vienna advance in a "better atmosphere."

"We're arriving at the end of a long process... there's a better atmosphere since Christmas – before Christmas I was very pessimistic. Today I believe reaching an accord is possible," he said after an informal meeting of EU foreign ministers.

He said a final deal could be concluded "in the coming weeks."

"I still maintain the hope that it would be possible to remake this agreement and have it function as it did before the American withdrawal," he added.

Iran's foreign ministry spokesman echoed that sentiment earlier this week, saying that efforts by "all parties" to revive the 2015 nuclear agreement with world powers had resulted in "good progress" during the Vienna talks.

But Borrell spoke alongside French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, who reiterated his view that the talks are progressing "much too slowly to be able to reach a result."

"We now have to conclude and come to a decision: Either the Iranians want to complete this, in which case we have the impression that there will be flexibility in the Americans' stance," Le Drian said.

"Or they don't want to complete this, and in that case we will be faced with a major proliferation crisis. There will be nothing more to negotiate if nothing happens," he warned.

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Negotiations to salvage the nuclear deal resumed in late November after they were suspended in June as Iran elected a new, hard-line government.

The 2015 deal – agreed by Iran, the US, China, Russia, Britain, France and Germany – offered Tehran sanctions relief in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program to ensure it would not develop atomic weapons.

In 2018, then-US president Donald Trump withdrew the US and reimposed harsh sanctions, prompting Tehran to begin rolling back on its commitments.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Thursday that only "a few weeks" were left to save the 2015 deal, and that Washington would consider "other options" if the negotiations fail.

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Iran has used a satellite launch rocket to send three research devices into space, a defense ministry spokesman said on Thursday, as indirect US-Iran talks take place in Austria to try to salvage a 2015 nuclear deal.

He did not clarify whether the devices had reached orbit. Iran, which has one of the biggest missile programs in the Middle East, has suffered several failed satellite launches in the past few years due to technical issues.

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Spokesman Ahmad Hosseini said the Simorgh satellite carrier rocket, whose name translates as "Phoenix", had launched the three research devices at an altitude of 470 kilometers (290 miles). He did not give further details.

"The intended research objectives of this launch were achieved," Hosseini said, in comments broadcast on state television. "This was done as a preliminary launch ... God willing, we will have an operational launch soon."

Iranian state television showed footage of what it said was the firing of the launch vehicle. Thursday's reported space launch comes as Tehran and Washington hold indirect talks in Vienna in an attempt to salvage a nuclear accord that Iran reached with world powers and that former US President Donald Trump abandoned in 2018.

The United States imposed sanctions on Iran's civilian space agency and two research organizations in 2019, claiming they were being used to advance Tehran's ballistic missile program.

Tehran denies such activity is a cover for ballistic missile development. Iran launched its first satellite Omid (Hope) in 2009 and its Rasad (Observation) satellite was also sent into orbit in June 2011. Tehran said in 2012 that it had successfully put its third domestically-made satellite, Navid (Promise), into orbit.

In April 2020, Iran said it successfully launched the country's first military satellite into orbit, following repeated failed launch attempts in the previous months.

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Diplomats engaged in the Iran nuclear talks in Vienna have completed this week's negotiations and will resume work on Monday, according to reports, despite warnings that the parties only had weeks, not months, to salvage the deal.

On Thursday morning, Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, Ali Bagheri-Kani, once again met with High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy of the European Union Enrique Mora.

This is the eight round of nuclear talks between countries that signed the original agreement in 2015 – China, France, Russia, United Kingdom, United States, and Germany together with the European Union.

Meanwhile, top US and Russian officials involved in the nuclear negotiations met in Vienna, a Russian envoy said on Wednesday, and delegates on both sides said Moscow and Washington were coordinating in a bid to salvage the 2015 agreement, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

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Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia's envoy to talks on the nuclear pact, wrote on Twitter that he had met twice on Wednesday with the US special envoy to Iran, Robert Malley, posting pictures of himself and the US diplomat.

"Close consultations and coordination between the Russian and the US delegations in the course of the Vienna talks constitute an important prerequisite for progress towards the restoration of the JCPOA," Ulyanov wrote.

The State Department, when asked about the meeting, refrained from discussing details of the diplomatic conversation.

After what he said was his second meeting with Malley, Ulyanov tweeted, "We maintain intensive and, I believe, useful dialogue in the course of the Vienna talks on concrete way and means of restoration of the JCPOA."

For the second time today I met this evening with the #US Special Envoy for #Iran Mr.Robert Malley.We maintain intensive and, I believe, useful dialogue in the course of the #ViennaTalks on concrete way and means of restoration of the #JCPOA. pic.twitter.com/sNbWUnvktO

— Mikhail Ulyanov (@Amb_Ulyanov) December 29, 2021

Separately, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken held a phone call with his French, German and British counterparts and Iran nuclear talks were among the topics discussed, according to a statement by the State Department.

"The Secretary and his counterparts also discussed their shared concerns about the pace of developments in Iran's nuclear program as time runs short for Tehran to return to the JCPOA," Department spokesperson Ned Price said in a statement about the call.

The 2015 deal lifted sanctions against Tehran in exchange for restrictions on its atomic activities but in 2018, then-President Donald Trump pulled Washington out of the agreement. Iran later breached many of the JCPOA's nuclear restrictions and kept pushing well beyond them.

The latest round of indirect talks between Iran and the United States resumed on Monday in the Austrian capital, with Tehran focused on getting US sanctions lifted again, despite scant progress on reining in its atomic activities.

US President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin were likely to discuss the Iran nuclear talks on Thursday – when they are due to have a virtual meeting – a senior Biden administration official said.

"I do believe that they [Biden and Putin] are likely to discuss it [Iran] again tomorrow given that we have ongoing talks in Vienna now and the US, our European partners, and the Russians have been coordinating quite closely in Vienna, working quite constructively together in Vienna," the official said.

Iran refuses to meet US officials directly, with other parties to the deal – Russia, China, France, Britain, Germany, and the European Union – having to shuttle between the two sides.
On Thursday, Washington expressed caution over upbeat comments by Iran and Russia about the talks in Vienna, saying it was too soon to say whether Tehran had returned to the negotiating table with a constructive approach.

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Negotiators from Iran and five world powers that are trying to revive a tattered 2015 nuclear deal will resume talks in Vienna next week, the European Union said Thursday, confirming that a new round will be officially launched on Monday.

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The announcement comes just days after the seventh round of talks ended with a stalemate. The talks were marked by tensions over new demands from Tehran. They are chaired by EU diplomat Enrique Mora.

The EU said participants from Britain, France, Germany, China, Russia and Iran will resume their efforts on Monday. They had been interrupted to allow Iran's chief negotiator to return home for consultations. The United States has participated indirectly in the ongoing talks because it withdrew from the accord in 2018 under then-President Donald Trump. President Joe Biden has signaled that he wants to rejoin the deal, but in recent weeks the administration has warned that time is running out and that Iran has not shown its seriousness.

The accord was meant to rein in Iran's nuclear program in return for loosened economic sanctions. Following the US decision to withdraw from the deal and reimpose sanctions on Iran, Tehran has ramped up its nuclear program again by enriching uranium well beyond the thresholds allowed by the agreement.

Iran has also restricted monitors from the international atomic watchdog agency – the International Atomic Energy Agency – from accessing its nuclear facilities, raising concerns about what the country is doing out of view.

Diplomats from the three European countries involved said after the seventh round of the talks ended that negotiators in Vienna are "rapidly reaching the end of the road." They have expressed frustration with Tehran's new demands in recent weeks but pointed to "some technical progress" so far.

Russian delegate to the talks Mikhail Ulyanov acknowledged on Twitter that "usually it isn't popular to engage in serious business" between Christmas and the new year.

But he said that "in this particular case this is an indication that all negotiators don't want to (waste) time, and aim at speediest restoration" of the nuclear deal.

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World powers will assess over the next few days whether Iran is serious in nuclear negotiations after it indicated it was ready to continue talks on the basis of texts that had been agreed at the last round in June, a European source said on Friday.

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Talks on reviving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal resumed on Thursday with the United States and Israel ramping up the rhetorical pressure on Tehran about the possible economic or military consequences if diplomacy fails.

Iran's top negotiator said Tehran was sticking to the stance it laid out last week, when the talks broke off with European and US officials accusing Iran of making new demands and of reneging on compromises worked out earlier this year.

"Iran said it accepted to work from the June texts. This will now be put to the test over the next couple of days," the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"Iran's seriousness is obvious. See who has cancelled other meetings and is in Vienna and who is not," Iranian negotiator Ali Bakri Kani told Reuters.

His comments suggested he was alluding to the United States' chief negotiator Rob Malley, who is not expected to arrive in the Austrian capital until the weekend.

"Negotiations on Iran's [new] drafts are going on," Bakri Kani added.

Working groups to discuss sanctions Washington might lift and the nuclear curbs Tehran needs to observe convene on Friday.

The indirect US-Iranian talks in Vienna, in which other diplomats from the remaining parties to a now tattered 2015 deal – France, Britain, Germany, Russia and China – shuttle between them because Tehran refuses direct contact with Washington, aim to get both sides to resume full compliance with the accord.

Under that accord, Iran limited its nuclear program in return for relief from US, European Union and U.N. sanctions.

Last week's discussions were the first after a five-month hiatus caused by the election of Iran's new hardline government under anti-Western President Ebrahim Raisi.

Western officials have said Iran has abandoned any compromises it had made in the previous six rounds of talks, pocketed those made by others, and demanded more last week.

Iran wants all sanctions imposed by the United States after then-US President Donald Trump ditched the deal in 2018, to be lifted in a verifiable process. Iran began violating the deal's nuclear restrictions about a year after the US withdrawal.

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Indirect US-Iranian talks on saving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal will resume on Thursday in Vienna, Iranian news agencies reported on Tuesday.

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"We will continue the talks on Thursday ... and await practical steps by the West," Iran's top negotiator Ali Bakri Kani was quoted as telling Iranian media during a visit to Moscow by the semi-official news agency ISNA.

Earlier, the Tasnim news agency said Bakri Kani had finalized the date of the resumption of the talks after contacting European Union coordinator Enrique Mora.

The talks broke off on Friday as European officials voiced dismay at sweeping demands by Iran's new, hardline government.

The seventh round of talks in Vienna is the first with delegates sent by Iran's anti-Western President Ebrahim Raisi on how to resuscitate the agreement under which Iran limited its nuclear program in return for relief from economic sanctions.

On Monday, Iran said there would not be any "halts or step-by-step agreements or temporary agreements" when nuclear talks resumed in Vienna later this week.

Iran's foreign ministry spokesperson, Saeed Khatibzadeh, told reporters at a news conference in Tehran that his country won't allow its "time or energy to be wasted" by other parties involved in talks.

"We are neither in a hurry nor will we allow our time and energy to be wasted by anyone in Vienna. Hopefully, everyone will soon be able to see that our team appears in Vienna with the goal of a good agreement and we hope the opposing side appears with this same goal," he said.

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