PEACE GOT A CHANCE : Obama: 'A Good Day For Democracy'... Wheels Up For Freed American Prisoners... Washington Post Journalist Jason Rezaian Among Them... Held For 18 Months... Kerry: I Thought It Was A Done Deal Months Ago... Signs Waiver Lifting (Some) Sanctions Against Iran... Obama Signs Executive Order... IAEA Confirms Iranian Compliance... GOP Hits Obama Anyway...The American Prisoners Just Left Iran. But Kerry Almost Got Them Out Months Ago. "We actually shook hands, thinking we had an agreement," the secretary of state said.

01/17/2016 08:16 am ET

ANDREWS AIR FORCE BASE, Maryland -- A Swiss plane carrying American citizens, including a Washington Post reporter, who were released from Iranian prison on Saturday departed Tehran early Sunday morning. The Americans were freed as part of a prisoner release deal -- the result of 14 months of high-stakes secret negotiations between the U.S. and Iran.

John Kerry is relieved that Jason Rezaian, Amir Hekmati, Saeed Abedini and Nosratollah Khosrawi-Roodsari are finally free. But the secretary of state thought he had secured their release months ago.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry with Iranian Foreign
 Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Jan. 16, the day they
 announced implementation of the nuclear deal. (AP)

Last July, just before the U.S., Iran and five world powers announced they had reached an agreement on Iran's nuclear program, Kerry had a conversation about the prisoners with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, and President Hassan Rouhani's brother, Hossein Fereydoun, in Vienna. “They nodded their heads, and we thought, ‘We’re gonna get it done,’” Kerry told reporters aboard a red-eye flight from Vienna to Andrews Air Force Base early Sunday morning.

Secretary of State John Kerry pauses while describing
to reporters the past 14 months of negotiations that led
to the release of four Americans from Iran.CREDIT: KEVIN LAMARQUE/ASSOCIATED PRESS

In November, Kerry and Zarif met again in Vienna, where they were attending Syrian peace talks. Afterward, they went to Zarif's hotel room and spoke again about the prisoners. “We actually shook hands, thinking we had an agreement,” Kerry said. “I thought it was done.” 

Kerry was deliberately vague about what happened next, but when Zarif took the proposed agreement back to Tehran, at least one Iranian government agency objected. “So we went back to work,” Kerry said.more