French President Emmanuel Macron warned Iran's president there were only "hours left" for a deal on Tehran's nuclear program to avert deep sanctions, even after Masoud Pezeshkian insisted his country does not seek an atomic bomb.

France, along with Britain and Germany, had set the clock ticking at the Security Council for the reimposition of wide-ranging UN sanctions that, without a deal, will kick in at the end of Saturday.

"An agreement remains possible. Only a few hours are left. It's up to Iran to respond to the legitimate issues we have raised," Macron wrote on X after meeting Pezeshkian at the United Nations.

Ahead of the meeting, Pezeshkian told the UN's annual signature gathering of world leaders that his country would never seek nuclear weapons.

"I hereby declare once more bef

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