BERLIN, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) — The German government is condoning the explosions that destroyed the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines on Sept. 26 last year, even as the country continues to suffer a severe energy crisis following the disruption of Russian gas supplies.
Without even giving access to members of the German Bundestag (the lower house of parliament), all information on the matter has been classified as “highly confidential” due to the so-called third-party rule, which prevents conflicts with the interests of allied states or their intelligence services.
An article by Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist Seymour Hersh claims that the United States was behind the pipeline explosions.
Before 2022, Russia supplied more than half of the gas consumed in Germany. Europe’s largest economy has had to completely rethink its energy policy, including the use of old coal-fired power plants and the import of more expensive liquefied natural gas (LNG). RESPONSIBILITY FOR US SABOTAGE
The collective silence of governments in Europe has created a news vacuum that is now being filled. In his article, Hersh alleged that American divers secretly planted the explosives on the Nord Stream pipelines under the guise of a widely publicized midsummer exercise by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
Hersh wrote that three months later, the remote detonation destroyed three of the four pipelines. The article’s source was described as a person with “direct knowledge of the operational planning”.
Washington has publicly opposed the Nord Stream pipelines for a long time, and US President Joe Biden’s statement at a joint White House press conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz last February 7 also leaves little room for interpretation.
In the event of a special military operation by Russia in Ukraine, Biden clearly said that “there will not be … no longer a Nord Stream 2. We will put an end to it.” When asked by a journalist how this was possible since the project was in Germany’s control, he simply added: “I will promise you, we will be able to do it.” ONGOING SECRET
This week, Denmark, Germany and Sweden told the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) in a joint letter that investigations were “ongoing”. Nothing was said about who is responsible. They only stated that “investigations are not yet complete” and “it is not possible to say when they will be completed”.
German industrial and domestic energy markets benefited enormously from the cheap natural gas flowing directly into their Lubmin Nord Stream 1 terminals. However, the United States has become increasingly concerned about this dependence on Russian energy and the weakening of the US energy export market.
After the destruction of the Nord Stream pipelines, the US will increase its LNG exports.
At a press conference, Foreign Minister Antony Blinken claimed that “it is a fantastic opportunity to remove once and for all the dependence on Russian energy.”
Russia has asked the UN Security Council to conduct an independent investigation into the explosions on the Nord Stream pipelines.
Source: sn.dk