Macron, Rohani Agree to Work on Saving Iran Nuclear Deal

French President Emmanuel Macron and Iranian President Hassan Rohani spoke by telephone on Sunday and agreed to work together in coming weeks to preserve the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement, the Elysee said in a statement.

In a conversation lasting more than an hour, Macron also proposed that the discussions be broadened to cover "three additional, indispensable subjects", his office said, citing Tehran's ballistic missile programmes, its nuclear activities beyond 2025 and "the main regional crises" in the Middle East.

The leaders of Britain, France and Germany agreed the Iran nuclear deal is the best way of stopping Tehran from gaining nuclear weapons, British Prime Minister Theresa May's office said in a statement on Sunday.

May had phone calls with Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel where they agreed the deal may need to be broadened to cover other areas such as ballistic missiles, what happens when the deal expires, and Iran's destabilising regional activity, the statement said.

"They committed to continue working closely together and with the U.S. on how to tackle the range of challenges that Iran poses – including those issues that a new deal might cover," the statement said.

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This comes as a deadline looms next month for President Donald Trump to decide on whether to restore U.S. economic sanctions on Tehran.

Trump has criticised a 2015 agreement which effectively lifted some Western sanctions on Iran in exchange for curbs on its nuclear programme.