Nord Stream blast investigation requires legislative mandate: UN

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
14 Feb 2023 23:32
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UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric says that there is "zero information" besides what has been reported on media outlets when it comes to the causes behind the Nord Stream blasts.

In this picture provided by Swedish Coast Guard, the gas leak in the Baltic Sea from Nord Stream photographed from the Coast Guard's aircraft on Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2022 (Swedish Coast Guard via AP)

A Nord Stream blast investigation by the UN would require, according to a statement by UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric, a mandate from a UN legislative body.

Dujarric told a press brief on Tuesday that "For us [United Nations] to conduct any sort of investigation in anything, we need… to have a mandate, which we don’t, clearly, in this [case],"

The spokesperson further noted that to this time, and besides what has been reported through media outlets, there has been "zero information" on the causes behind the Nord Stream explosions.

Seymour Hersh: US planted Nord Stream explosives

An account holding the name of famed US investigative journalist and Pulitzer award winner Seymour Hersh said, on February 8, that US Navy divers planted explosives to destroy the Nord Stream pipelines last year.

"Last June, the Navy divers, operating under the cover of a widely publicized mid-summer NATO exercise known as BALTOPS 22, planted the remotely triggered explosives that, three months later, destroyed three of the four Nord Stream pipelines, according to a source with direct knowledge of the operational planning," Hersh wrote in his Substack newsletter.

The White House responded and dismissed the claims as "false and complete fiction."

Hersh later confirmed to the Russian news agency Sputnik that he authored the investigative report in question.

"Of course," Hersh told Sputnik when asked whether he authored the article published on a Substack account created shortly before its publication.

Flightradar24 data showed in late September that US military helicopters habitually and on numerous occasions circled for hours over the site of the Nord Stream pipeline incident near Bornholm Island.

A US Navy Sikorsky MH-60R Seahawk helicopter spent hours loitering over the location of the damaged natural gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea near Bornholm for several days in a row, September 1, 2, and 3, in particular.

According to the article, the United States decided to sabotage the pipelines after a lengthy debate that lasted more than nine months inside the US national security community.

"Last June, the Navy divers, operating under the cover of a widely publicized mid-summer NATO exercise known as BALTOPS 22, planted the remotely triggered explosives that, three months later, destroyed three of the four Nord Stream pipelines, according to a source with direct knowledge of the operational planning," the report read.

The revelation of the report prompted Moscow to ask the United States to comment, saying it had repeatedly said that the United States and NATO member states were involved in the explosions at Nord Stream, according to Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova.

"We have repeatedly stated Russia's position on the involvement of the United States and NATO, noting that they did not hide it, bragging to the whole world about their intention to destroy the civilian infrastructure through which Europe received Russian energy resources," Zakharova said.

"We have also regularly underscored the reluctance of Denmark, Germany, and Sweden to conduct an open investigation and the opposition to Russia's participation in it. And this is despite the fact that our country has suffered huge costs. Now, the White House should comment on all these facts," she added.