joining me now from washington is mark landler, white house correspondent for the "new york times." thank you, mark, for joining us. >> hi, charlie. >> rose: how did this happen? >> well, charlie, as you know, for the whole week, there's been this interesting diplomatic dance unfolding between the iranians and the americans at the united nations. the white house said early in the week, it was open to a handshake or some sort of an informal meeting. they put feelers out to the iranians. there was a lot of discussion of logistices, and ultimately president rouhani skipped the opportunity and said to several other people, including you, that he needed more time to set it up. there needed to be more groundwork done. well, it turns out that another day later, as he's on his way out of new york, the iranians sent word to the white house that president rouhani would welcome a telephone call. and so today at about 2:30 in the afternoon, president obama, the white house, they placed this call. he is in his car on his way to j.f.k. for his flight home to tehran. and he answers, and the two men

mark landler, the white house correspondent for the "new york times," has the details. >> the iranians sent word to the white house that president rouhani would welcome a telephone call, and so today at about 2:30 in the aternoon, president obama, the white house, they placed this call. he is in his car on his way to j.f.k. for his flight home to tehran. and he answers and the two men speak for 15 minutes. they speak largely about the iranian nuclear program, but a few other issues. and at the end, president rouhani signs off with an english version of "have a nice day," and president obama says good-bye in farsi, and we have history made. >> rose: we continue this evening with the foreign minister of france laurent fabius who is in new york for the u.s. general assembly. >> as far as iran is concerned, the words are good and they are new, and it's important. but what matters at the end of the day is actions, deeds. and, therefore, all of the tasks will be to assure that the irany people do implement what they are talking about. that's our perspective. if there is an opportunity we hav

mark landler, the white house correspondent for the "new york times," has the details. >> the iranianse house that president rouhani would welcome a telephone call, and so today at about 2:30 in the afternoon, president obama, the white house, they placed this call. he is in his car on his way to j.f.k. for his flight home to tehran. and he answers and the two men speak for 15 minutes. they speak largely about the iranian nuclear program, but a few other issues. at

there's a similar piece by scott wilson in "the washington post" but this one by mark landler.nd i just want to share with you part of what he reports this morning. the president's aides were -- quote -- "stunned at what they heard when they called the white house chief of staff, susan rice and others into the oval office for what ended up being a two-hour debate, the president announcing his decision to white house staffers that he was going to seek congressional approval." and then there is this one part of the story that says that he made the decision in part because of what happened in great britain but also he wanted to make sure that congress would get in when he really made need something in terms of approval for military action with iran or elsewhere in the next three years of his administration. guest: right. this also puts to lie the idea that an administration official in the "l.a. times" last week was quoted as saying, you know what, this is an action which is not supposed to -- you know, topple assad. it is not a preemptive strike. it is a post -- you know, a post