Washington: After seeing off Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh after their summit meeting in September, President Barack Obama hurried back to his Oval office in the White House to make a historic phone call.
Obama's 15 minute call to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani at around 2:30 p.m. on Friday Sep 27 - as the latter headed in a car to the airport after attending the UN session in New York - laid the foundation for the landmark nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers led by the US announced Sunday.
"The two of us discussed our ongoing efforts to reach an agreement over Iran's nuclear programme," said Obama in a statement from the White House briefing room after the first conversation between the US and Iranian leaders since the 1979 Iranian revolution.
What part Manmohan Singh played, if any, in Obama's decision to make the ice-breaking call to Rouhani is not clear, though they did discuss Iran at their summit hours earlier.
As the India-US Joint Statement after the Obama-Singh Summit noted: "The Leaders stressed the need for diplomacy to resolve outstanding issues relating to Iran's nuclear programme, and called on Iran to comply with its IAEA and UN Security Council obligations."
But media reports suggest that Obama's historic conversation with Rouhani was less of "a foreign-policy milestone born of a rush of last-minute diplomacy" than it was made out to be and "was more intricately choreographed" with an Indian-American official playing a key role.
"Obama had empowered the administration's top Iran specialist, Puneet Talwar, for some time to have direct meetings and phone conversations with Iranian Foreign Ministry officials," the Wall Stree Journal reported citing unnamed US and European officials.
"Talwar, an Indian-American steeped in Iran policy, has at times conveyed a succinct message for his Iranian interlocutors: The US wants to peacefully resolve the dispute over Tehran's nuclear programme," it said citing the officials.
