From the New York Times, I'm Michael Barbaro. This is the date.

Today, President Trump disavows the Iran nuclear deal and threatens to leave it all together.

If Congress doesn't amend it to permanently block Iran from building nuclear weapons or intercontinental missiles.

Jake Sullivan, a top negotiator on the Iran deal under President Obama, tells the story of why it got done the way it did and how it feels to watch the President threaten to undo it.

It's Monday, October 16th.

The President

Jake, what was the status of the relationship between the U.S. and Iran when the Obama White House started to talk about the possibility of a nuclear deal?

The relationship had been in a deep freeze going all the way back to 1979, which is when the Iranian revolution occurred. And there had been no direct face-to-face bilateral talks between the United States and Iran in decades.

And Iran, at that point, was racing ahead on its nuclear capability.

At a massive pro-government rally in Tehran, President Amidena Jad declared that Iranian scientists had enriched uranium to 20 percent for the first time.

Declaring Iran, a nuclear state he denied that the country sought a nuclear bomb.

So the clock was ticking on Iran moving forward to the point where it would be able to produce the material necessary for nuclear weapons in relatively short order.

When Iran's President Mahmoud Amidena Jad speaks out candidly and he does it a lot, he scares a lot of people.

The U.S. and other Western countries have suspected Iran's nuclear program is geared towards weapons. The Iranians insist it's peaceful, but diplomats say this new report points to one thing and one thing only.

Iran is seeking to develop a nuclear weapons program.

And so President Obama felt that we had to work aggressively to try to rally the international community to pressure Iran and bring Iran to the table so we could put a lid on their program.

So Jake, tell me the story of when those discussions began in earnest inside the Obama White House.

From the very first day in office.

To those who claimed to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent.

In his inaugural speech, he talked about reaching out America's hand if other countries like Iran would unclench their fists.

We will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fists.

He sent an early signal about being willing to engage, but he also told the rest of the world who was doing business with Iran, was buying their oil, was doing financial transactions with them.

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