Secretary of State John Kerry’s severe bicycle accident might have foreign policy implications. He recently broke his leg while cycling in Switzerland.
When asked by reporters about the accident, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest admitted that nuclear talks with Iran would be affected by the accident, but reassured them that Kerry would still play a prominent role in the process.
“The fact is, we do continue to believe that we have the time and resources necessary to pursue and hopefully complete the Iran negotiations,” he said. “And I’m confident that those negotiations will be affected by the secretary’s injury, but exactly how we move forward on this is something that we’ll have more details on later.”
Earnest admitted that it was unlikely that Kerry would be traveling to Europe in the near future to meet with Iranian officials, but declined to name another representative from the Obama administration.
“Whether he’s going to spend every day over the next four weeks in Europe negotiating face-to-face with his counterpart seems to be unlikely that he’ll be able to do that given the injury that he sustained,” Earnest explained.
Earnest revealed that both President Obama and National Security advisor Susan Rice spoke with Kerry after the injury to wish him a full recovery.
Kerry is now flying back to Boston for treatment where he vowed to pursue an “aggressive but responsible” recovery schedule.
Earnest advised the press for more updates from Kerry and his doctors after he returned to the United States.