Russia stressed on Wednesday that there was no alternative to the current Iran nuclear deal, a day after the leaders of the United States and France said that they wanted to strike a new agreement with Tehran.
"We are in favor of keeping the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action in its current form," President Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, referring to the nuclear deal hammered out in 2015.
"We believe that no alternative exists so far," he told reporters, adding that Iran's position on the subject was paramount.
He said the agreement was the product of the efforts of many countries.
"The question is, will it be possible to repeat such successful work in the current situation," Peskov stated.
Iran's President Hassan Rouhani rejected the US and French calls, and the EU also insisted the current agreement must stay.
"We have an agreement called the JCPOA," said Rouhani in a fiery speech on Wednesday.
"It will either last or not. If the JCPOA stays, it stays in full.”
US President Donald Trump called the existing accord "insane" and "ridiculous", despite European pleas for him not to walk away, and demanded fresh curbs on Iran's ballistic missile program and support for militant groups across the Middle East.
French President Emmanuel Macron said a new agreement should include a settlement on Syria, as well as contain Iran’s influence in the Middle East.
On Wednesday, EU diplomatic chief Federica Mogherini insisted the deal must be maintained.
"On what can happen in the future we'll see in the future, but there is one deal existing, it's working, it needs to be preserved," the former Italian foreign minister said as she arrived for a donor conference on Syria in Brussels.
Trump faces a May 12 deadline to decide on the fate of the Iran nuclear accord and is demanding changes that European capitals believe would represent a legal breach.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel is expected to press the European case again when she visits Washington on Friday.
