JERUSALEM — France will uphold economic sanctions on Iran as long as necessary, French President Francois Hollande said in Israel on Sunday.

It was Hollande’s first visit to the area since he became president more than a year ago, and he met with Israeli and Palestinian officials.

The meetings come as western powers are preparing for another round of negotiations with Iran over its alleged nuclear weapons program.

“France considers [Iran] to be a threat to Israel, and it is clearly threatening to the region and the world,” Hollande said upon arrival at Ben Gurion Airport. “France will not give up or compromise on nuclear proliferation, and as long as we are not completely sure that Iran has given up nuclear weapons, we will continue to maintain our position.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at a welcoming ceremony for Hollande that Israel views France as a true friend.

“France, like Israel, aspires to a stable, moderate Middle East in which the peoples live in peace with each other, in security and mutual respect,” Netanyahu said. “You, Mr. President, have taken a resolute stance regarding Syria, and in the face of Iran’s relentless attempts to arm itself with nuclear weapons, which would endanger not just Israel, but regimes and countries throughout the Middle East. It would also endanger France, Europe and the entire world.”

It has been reported that France was the one country that stood in the way of the P5+1 world powers (the UN Security Council’s five permanent members plus Germany) signing an agreement with Iran last week in Geneva. The agreement reportedly would have offered an easing of economic sanctions in return for Iran halting high-level uranium enrichment.

“The citizens of Israel are full of gratitude to France for standing by our side in times of difficulty. We will never forget it,” Israeli President Shimon Peres said at a welcoming ceremony at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem.

 On Monday, Hollande called on Israel to cease all settlement construction, praising Netanyahu for halting a recent announcement of more apartments in the West Bank. Speaking at a press conference in Ramallah alongside Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, Hollande urged both sides to continue to make goodwill gestures to create an atmosphere conducive to peace, suggesting the Palestinians give up or at least soften their insistence on the right of return.

 “For a peace agreement to be reached, France demands the total and definite halt of settlement construction because it compromises a two-state solution,” the French president said. “I said that to the Israeli authorities in friendship. I say here to the Palestinians that they, too, need to make efforts to deal with difficult and complicated problems, notably the refugees.”

For peace to be achieved, “realistic propositions” will have to be made, the French president said, referring to the Palestinian demand for a so-called right of return for some five million Palestinian refugees and their descendants. “If not, then there won’t be an agreement.”

Abbas said that in accordance with the Arab Peace Initiative, a “just and agreed-to” solution to the refugee problem would have to be found. “Let’s sit down around the [negotiating] table and let’s discuss a just solution and see if we can perhaps agree on it, and sign this peace agreement.”

Hollande travelled to Ramallah on Monday for a meeting with Abbas in the Muqata’a, the third meeting between the two leaders meet since Hollande took office in May 2012. Hollande also laid a wreath at the grave of the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

Hollande said he was hopeful because Palestinians and Israelis had agreed to negotiate a final-status agreement. Both sides took painful steps to enable these talks to commence, “but more gestures are needed if one wants to arrive at an agreement,” he said.

“France is an exceptional position, because it is a friend of the Israelis and it is a friend of the Palestinians who want peace,” he said. “One has to make gestures, always gestures, because it’s going to be the last gesture that counts, that will enable peace.”

The French president mentioned that Netanyahu last week withdrew plans for new West Bank settlement construction, saying that he considers the prime minister’s move as a gesture that allowed the Palestinian negotiators to continue with the talks.

Last Tuesday, Israel’s Housing Ministry published tenders for the planning of some 20,000 settlement units — an unprecedented number. Netanyahu hastily ordered the project to be rolled back, saying it constituted “an unnecessary confrontation with the international community at a time when we are making an effort to persuade elements in the international community to reach a better deal with Iran.”

With files from The Times of Israel