Jake Sullivan

I was part of the team that President Obama sent for secret negotiations with the Iranians for several months, paving the way for the Iran nuclear deal.

One of the guys I actually negotiated with is the guy you see on TV all the time now, their foreign minister, Abbas Arachi, one of the few Iranians that's still showing his face publicly.

I actually have a good story about agai versus the guy.

During those negotiations, President Obama wanted the opportunity to speak to the then president of Iran, President Rouhani.

And in our secret negotiations, I had a contact with one of the Iranian officials, and he gave me a cell phone number to give to the Situation Room for President Obama to be connected with President Rouhani.

So I hand over the cell phone, and I'm standing there in the Oval Office while the call is being connected, and I have a thought.

have I just connected the president to, like, a Canadian shock jock or some random other person, or is this actually the president of Iran?

And I'm going back through my head, what's the chain of custody of this phone number?

And in the end, the Iranians put out a statement saying, in fact, their president had spoken to our president, so it was all confirmed, and I was like, all good.

But...

What if it was like a girl at a bar who's like, sure, here's my number.

Can you imagine this amazing moment in the White House?

Right.

President of the United States speaking to the president of Iran for the first time since 1979.

A possibility of a real diplomatic breakthrough.

Right.

And I'm standing there just sweating bullets like, oh, my God, what have I done?

Yes.

Turned out OK.

But look...