Senior French and German officials Friday said they were looking to help European firms escape the brunt of the reimposition of U.S. sanctions on Iran, while considering longer-term measures to blunt Washington’s powers to penalize European companies from afar.

In the short term, officials said, governments have little choice but to plead for leniency from the Trump administration, which has been in talks with European capitals after President Donald Trump’s decision this week to withdraw the U.S. from the Iranian nuclear accord. The Trump administration has vowed to punish companies that continue to do business with Iran after grace periods of three or six months, depending on the economic sector involved.

French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire on Friday said he had asked U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin for exemptions or longer grace periods for French companies such as Total SA, Peugeot SA, Renault SA and Danone SA that have returned to the Iranian market since the 2015 nuclear accord.

“I don’t have many illusions about what the American response will be,” Mr. Le Maire said on French radio.

“It’s concretely about damage limitation,” German Economy Minister Peter Altmaier said on German radio.