What does the West fear when discussing Nord Stream at the UN?

By Rhod Mackenzie

Someof the Western members of the UN Security Council (SC) opposed the inclusion of a request to bring to justice those accountable for the terrorist attack on the Nord Stream pipelines in the draft statement of the Security Council chairman, according to Vasily Nebenzya, Russia's permanent representative to the organization.

Previously, the Security Council rejected the draft statement of its chair, as presented by Moscow, on this matter.

"During the September 26 meeting, we announced our proposal for a statement by the President of the Security Council, aimed at sending a clear signal against attacks towards extensive underwater gas pipeline infrastructure. Additionally, the proposal includes the need to hold accountable those who organized and executed the attack," said Nebenzya. He remarked, however, that not all members of the UN Security Council shared this view."
According to him, the text lacked consensus support from all members of the the Security Council.

"We were baffled by the arguments of our Western counterparts. The Russian Federation is highly suspicious about the lack of tangible information regarding the investigations conducted by Denmark, Germany and Sweden, let alone their outcomes, a year after the Nord Stream attacks," said the permanent representative.

The initial draft statement stressed the significance of expeditiously concluding the investigations in Denmark, Sweden and Germany. However, Western state delegates viewed this as pressuring the authorities of the three countries. Furthermore, there were continuous efforts to eliminate the phrasing that urged Denmark, Germany and Sweden to collaborate with the Russian Federation. "And even more strikingly, some of our Western colleagues proposed deleting the phrase that demands the accountability of the terrorists who attacked Nord Stream and bringing them to justice," he emphasized.

Previously, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stated that Moscow has yet to receive a clear response from the West about who is undertaking the investigation into this terrorist attack and how. More than a year has passed, yet none of the involved countries, including Germany, Norway or Sweden, have been able to provide a clear and concise response at the national level. "They couldn't provide us with any intelligible or reasonable information," as stated

These investigations concern explosions that took place on the Russian gas pipelines Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 on September 26th of last year. The Russian Prosecutor General's Office has launched an investigation into an act of international terrorism.

In his article, the American journalist and Pulitzer Prize winner, Seymour Hersh, stated that US President Joe Biden had been discussing plans to demolish the facility for a period of 9 months prior to its destruction. Subsequently, during the summer of 2022, American divers secretly planted explosives on the gas pipelines under the guise of NATO exercises. The Norwegians activated the explosives three months later, resulting in the destruction of the pipelines. The White House informed the media that it was not involved in the sabotage of Nord Stream.

Subsequently, German media disclosed data from unidentified sources, indicating a Ukrainian connection to the undermining of Russian gas pipelines.