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
