The head of French oil major Total recently urged U.S. President Donald Trump to stick with the nuclear deal with Iran, where it has investments, according to an interview with the Financial Times.

Total's CEO Patrick Pouyanne said he had raised the topic of Iran with Trump at a dinner in Davos in January, and asked the president to keep faith with the nuclear deal, arguing that oil and gas investment would help the cause of reformers in Tehran.

"I made the argument, but the question is how much time do we give to the reformists? Do we give them enough time to . . . help them to go towards more democracy?" Pouyanne was quoted as saying.

"I think Donald Trump listened; it does not mean that he agrees."

Trump has been pushing for changes to a 2015 nuclear agreement to curb Iran's nuclear program that cleared the way for sanctions to be lifted on the Islamic Republic.