U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry (R), U.S. Under Secretary for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman (C), National Security Council point person on the Middle East Robert Malley (L) and Chief of Staff Jon Finer (2nd L) meet on the terrace of a hotel where the Iran nuclear talks meetings are being held in Vienna, Austria July 2, 2015.
Come for the nuclear talks. Stay for the espresso. And the Twizzlers.
The teams negotiating a deal between Iran and world powers have been in and out of Vienna for five weeks. If the talks haven't had the requisite snap, crackle and pop, the US negotiators have.
They've gone through more than 200 Rice Krispies treats. And 10 pounds of Twizzlers (strawberry flavored), 20 pounds of string cheese, 30 pounds of mixed nuts and dried fruits.
To wash it down? Hundreds of espresso pods, reports Matt Viser of the Boston Globe.
While no details have been released about the number of Oreos consumed (Viser suspects it's classified information), Viser says Secretary of State John Kerry is a big fan.
"Kerry is a snacker but I don't know if he's a Twizzler or string cheese guy," he says, "I do know he has a fondness for Oreos."
Because of dietary restrictions and to increase each party's privacy, the Iranian and US delegations each have separate dining areas.
But at least one member of the US team has stopped by the Iranian side. "Secretary Moniz [Ernest Moniz], the energy secretary, has gone over to the Iranian dining room a couple of times with his counter part Ali [Akbar] Salehi and has had dessert or kebab and things like that," Viser says.
One other way the members of the US delegation have been filling up their downtime is by debating who among them would be played by what stars, if at some point in the future, a Hollywood movie were to be made about the talks.
"It's quite detailed," says Viser. "John Kerry would be played by Ted Danson, [Ernest] Moniz would be Javier Bardem, portrayed in "No Country for Old Men," Wendy Sherman…would be Meryl Streep (as captured in "The Devil Wears Prada")…and Marie Harf, the communications adviser, would be Kirsten Dunst."
Viser adds that the rule in this game was that the delegates couldn't pick the characters for themselves. Others team members did.
Of course there is a serious side to the nuclear talks in Vienna and Viser says there's no denying that the delegates are working hard to finalize an agreement that could change the future of the Middle East.
"The delegation is working pretty long hours," he says. And that's partly because of the time difference.
"They get up in the mornings and they negotiate and deep into the night, they're communicating with Washington and trying to brief the White House…there's a lot of conference calls back home," he says.
Then, he says, they get a couple of hours of sleep and are up, doing the same all over again.
Previous deadlines for a final deal have come and gone. The next one is set for Friday but there are still unresolved issues to be worked out. If talks go on, there'll always have Twizzlers.
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