Last month, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei announced that Tehran is in "no hurry" to return to its obligations under the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, and is prepared to wait until the US lifts its illegal sanctions against the Islamic Republic.

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi has stated that a possible US decision to rejoin the 2015 nuclear deal, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), does not require any talks.

Speaking to the deal's remaining signatories during a virtual meeting on Friday, Araqchi added that "Iran will suspend its steps [scaling back compliance with the deal's terms] as soon as [US] sanctions are lifted and this is verified".

The statement comes as Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif announced earlier on Friday that the US would not take part in talks on the JCPOA, scheduled for next week in Vienna.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, for his part, hailed the upcoming Vienna event, stressing in a statement that the sides "have no time to lose".

"An agreement that is once again fully respected would be a plus for security for the entire region and the best basis for talks on other important issues of regional stability", Maas pointed out.

The statement followed the JCPOA signatories agreeing to sit down for the Vienna nuclear talks in order to "clearly identify sanctions lifting and nuclear implementation measures, including through convening meetings of the relevant expert groups".

In last month's interview with the US news outlet Politico, Zarif reiterated Iran's readiness to adhere to the JCPOA "as soon as the United States comes to compliance".

The Islamic Republic started to scale down its JCPOA obligations, including those pertaining to uranium enrichment, in May 2019, exactly a year after then-US President Donald Trump announced Washington's unilateral withdrawal from the accord, also reinstating harsh economic sanctions against Tehran.

"Now we want to go back to compliance. The party that has started this process has to go back and Iran will immediately go back", Zarif told Politico, in an apparent nod to the US.

When asked why the Islamic Republic has not sat down with the US yet to discuss the matter, he said that "there is nothing to talk about", accusing Washington of seeking "to use pressure and coercion in order to extract new concessions from Iran" when it comes to the JCPOA.

In February, the White House expressed a willingness to revive US participation in the Iran deal, also demanding that Tehran return to its commitments under the 2015 agreement. Tehran, for its part, insists that it is Washington who should take the first step by scrapping all economic sanctions against the Islamic Republic.

• China buys more Iranian and Venezuelan oil undermining US sanctions
• Iran's Guardians Council will suspend IAEA inspections if sanctions are not eased
• Israel, not Iran, has an illegal nuclear arms program - here are the details

California-based social networking site Twitter will be forced to shell out more than a hundred thousand dollars in fines, after a Russian court ruled that it had breached its obligations to delete material banned in the country.

A judge handed the company three separate penalties, totaling 8.9 million rubles ($116,800) on Friday. The Moscow Court found that the service was guilty of breaching the terms of Russia's administrative code by failing to delete material flagged by authorities.

In March, media regulator Roskomnadzor announced that it would begin slowing Twitter's speeds in the country over allegations it had not complied with a number of deletion requests. Officials say that they had filed more than 28,000 requests for posts to be taken down but, at the time of the decision, "3,168 pieces of content containing prohibited information... remained not deleted." These reportedly include more than 2,500 calls for children to kill themselves and 450 involving child pornography.

Vadim Subbotin, Roskomnadzor's deputy head, told journalists that, if "Twitter does not adequately respond to our requests - if things go on as they have been - then in a month it will be blocked without needing a court order." However, he urged the American firm to comply with the orders and avoid a total ban. The regulator has also flagged concerns over the use of social media to promote unauthorized protests, such as those that followed the jailing of opposition figure Alexey Navalny.

In a statement at the time, the company said it was "aware of reports that Twitter is being intentionally slowed down broadly and indiscriminately in Russia due to apparent content removal concerns." The tech firm added that it was "deeply concerned by increased attempts to block and throttle online public conversation."

Earlier this week, President Vladimir Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said that he was optimistic foreign-owned social media giants could learn to live within the country's laws. "It is necessary to find a middle ground between the priorities of media freedom and regulation," he said. "More and more life flows into it. The more life there is, the more rules there need to be. And these should be the rules of the game for everybody, including foreign companies, because the internet has no borders."

• Putin: Freedom of speech online must be defended against social media companies intent on making 'profit at any cost'
• Russian government gives Twitter one month to remove child abuse content, or it will block platform from internet
• Under threat of ban, Twitter has begun removing content prohibited in Russia - but Moscow says social network is acting too slowly
• Months after Twitter shadow-bans RT, Putin signs law to fine & block social media giants that censor Russian media sources
• Censorship-happy Twitter suddenly concerned about 'public conversation' as Russia cracks down on illegal content
• Russia may amend legislation to block Google due to breaking country's laws
• Russia to fine Google for failing to implement blacklist laws
• Google finally cooperates with Russian law to censor search results

• Poll: Majority of Americans hate socialism, don't much like Ocasio-Cortez
• Ocasio-Cortez calls for Leftists, never-Trumpers to begin compiling 'lists' of Trump supporters
• AOC does something right: Ocasio-Cortez says it's 'legitimate to talk about' allegation against Biden
• Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez angry US-Mexico-Canada agreement doesn't contain 'a single damn mention of climate change'
• Ocasio-Cortez proposes counting white people's ballots as three-fifths of a vote
• Saikat Chakrabarti, the brain behind Ocasio-Cortez to leave office