Twitter Tells Hashtag Tale of #IranTalks

Not to tout the part it played in a nuclear deal or anything, but in a post on its media blog yesterday, Twitter took a victory lap for its role as a news breaker in the historic agreement by Iran to dial back its efforts in that dangerous arena.

“When six major powers and the government of Iran came to an agreement about curbing Iran’s nuclear capabilities in Geneva last week, the news broke on Twitter,” Ahmad AbouAmmo wrote in a post titled “Iran’s nuclear deal told in Tweets.” “In fact, one of the key participants tweeted the historic agreement.”

Kind of like the modern version of a press release, with a lot less words. Still, it’s yet another moment to reflect on how these times are changing, even for the slow-moving diplomatic world.

In other words: It’s a tweet world, after all.

In fact, looking back, it was interesting that so many of the main participants did take to Twitter, such as Iran’s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, who first unveiled the agreement on November 23 in a very terse tweet.

We have reached an agreement.

— Javad Zarif (@JZarif) November 24, 2013

The State Department and others also touted the deal, including the White House:

“We have halted the progress of the Iranian nuclear program & key parts of the program will be rolled back.” —Obama: pic.twitter.com/BzIlXtNYqW

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) November 24, 2013

But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was not having any of it, unloading a five-part takedown of the deal — which was kind of perfect given the medium:

This is not a historic agreement, it's a historic mistake. Lifting the pressure, this "first step", might be the last step. 1/5 #BadDeal

— Benjamin Netanyahu (@netanyahu) November 24, 2013

There is always a tweet troll, I guess, no matter the topic.