Tillerson: US trying to stay in Iran deal

"We're going to stay in," Tillerson said in an interview with CNN's Jake Tapper on "State of the Union," though he left open the possibility that the US could seek another agreement.

"We're going to work with our European partners and allies to see if we can't address these concerns," he added.

Trump on Friday said Iran was violating the agreement and threatened to pull out of the deal, pushing the issue to Congress. Tillerson has said in the past Iran was in "technical compliance" with the deal.

Asked to square these two claims, Tillerson said Iran had committed technical violations of the deal, but that the agreement was structured in a way to give Iran significant time to remedy its violations.

"They have remedied the violations, which then brings them back into technical compliance," Tillerson said.

Tillerson said Trump had demanded a broader strategy on Iran and said the US was focused on more issues than simply Iran's potential nuclear ambitions, citing the nation's ballistic missile program and support for groups adversarial to the US throughout the Middle East.

"What the President wants is a more comprehensive strategy," Tillerson said.

He said the US was working to address issues it had with the multilateral agreement and anticipated that might require a new deal.

"Let's see if we cannot address the flaws in the agreement by staying within the agreement, working with the other signatories, working with our European friends and allies within the agreement," Tillerson said. "But that, as I said, may come in a secondary agreement as well."