Washington: A day after French President Emanuel Macron met with his American counterpart Donald Trump for bilateral talks which included the Iran deal on the agenda, he today said France will not leave the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and pushed for a comprehensive agreement with Tehran to address the U.S' concerns.

"There is an existing framework called the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) to control the nuclear activity of Iran. We signed it at the initiative of the U.S. We signed it, both the United States and France. That is why we cannot say we should get rid of it like that," Macron said in his joint address to the U.S. Congress.

He added that the agreement may not address all concerns, "but we should not abandon it without having something substantial and more substantial instead." The U.S. and its President Trump, he said, will have to see its responsibilities regarding the issue. "But what I want to do, and what we decided together with your president, is that we can work on a more comprehensive deal addressing all of his concerns," he said.

Macron’s vocal stand on the Iran nuclear deal came after he had lengthy talks with Trump on April 24 in which he said that the countries that signed the deal (P5+1) could look at addressing the U.S. President’s concerns.

The Iran nuclear deal is up for renewal on May 12 and Donald Trump has threatened to walk out of it as he said the deal does not prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons permanently. Trump has also called the Iran nuclear deal signed by his predecessor Barack Obama as "insane," "ridiculous" and “weak.”

The French President as if appealing to the U.S. Congress to control Trump’s actions reaffirmed the objective on Iran, was clear that it shall never possess any nuclear weapons. "Not now, not in five years, not in 10 years, never. But this policy should never lead us to war in the Middle East," he said. "We must ensure stability and respect sovereignty of the nations, including that one of Iran, which represents a great civilisation. Let us not replicate past mistakes in the region. Let us not be naive on one side. Let us not create new walls ourselves on the other side," Macron said.

Macron’s warning comes even as Trump told media persons during talks with his French counterpart that if Iran even considers the nuclear option then “it will have bigger problems than it has ever seen.”

The Iran nuclear deal, reached in Vienna on 14 July 2015 between Iran, the P5+1 (China, France, Russia, United Kingdom, United States—plus Germany) which had Iran eliminate its stockpile of medium-enriched uranium, cut its stockpile of low-enriched uranium by 98%, reduce by about two-thirds the number of its gas centrifuges for 13 years and Tehran also agreed not to build any new heavy-water facilities for the same period of time. (With Agency inputs)

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 26, 2018 05:46 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).