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    In 19 Tweets: How The Iran Deal Happened

    While the Iran talks weren't the first major negotiations on nuclear weapons, they were probably the first with an outcome first announced on Twitter.

    Back in June, Iran's presidential elections had a surprise winner: reformer Hassan Rouhani

    Western-educated, Rouhani took to Twitter to express his more favorable views of the U.S.

    He even suggested he was open to a new approach on the nuclear issue

    Rouhani's attitude (and his openness about it on public forums like Twitter) eased US-Iran relations

    Allowing actual discussion to occur between the two countries.

    In September, Rouhani announced on Twitter that he spoke with President Obama on the phone

    During that convo, Rouhani and Obama discussed a new approach to nuclear negotiations

    As you can imagine, the politics of the issue were (and remain) tricky in Iran.

    But the groundwork was set for a new round of talks in October

    And slowly, the nuclear talks were making progress

    By early November, we were approaching an actual agreement

    A near-agreement fell through, but Zarif urged his counterparts to keep talking

    And as talks continued, he tweeted out a video urging continued progress

    View this video on YouTube

    Here's the video he posted.

    Zarif's optimism seemed at odds with Ayatollah Khamenei's tweets that same day

    Undaunted, talks continued – with Rouhani's vocal support

    With the news that Sec. Kerry was flying to Geneva, it again seemed that a deal was near

    A deal was reached.

    The first word came from EU Spokesman Michael Mann

    Minutes later, Zarif announced it, too

    Followed shortly thereafter by Iran's President

    Just how far have we come? Iran's president retweeted John Kerry