Jake Sullivan received a cell phone number from an Iranian official to connect President Obama with President Rouhani.

“The historic phone call between President Obama and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on September 27, 2013, is a well-documented event. News reports and historical accounts from the period confirm that the call was the culmination of secret back-channel negotiations in which Jake Sullivan was a key figure. The specific anecdote about an Iranian official handing over a phone number to facilitate the call is a consistent part of the narrative of how this first direct contact between U.S. and Iranian leaders since 1979 was arranged. Context: This phone call occurred as Iranian President Rouhani was leaving the United Nations General Assembly in New York. It was the first direct communication between the heads of state of the two nations since the 1979 Iranian Revolution and was a significant step toward the eventual 2015 Iran nuclear deal (JCPOA).”