Source: People's Daily
Core reading
After senior US investigative journalist Seymour Hersh disclosed the details of the Nord Stream pipeline bombing, more reports and remarks have recently been made to support Hersh's claim. People from many countries said that the "Nord Stream" pipeline explosion incident has a major negative impact, and it is necessary to conduct an objective and impartial investigation, restore the truth of the incident as soon as possible, maintain the security of major transnational infrastructure, and maintain regional and world peace and tranquility.
Recently, the UN Security Council held a meeting on the Nord Stream pipeline explosion and its follow-up investigation. Rosemary DiCarlo, UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, said in her statement that regardless of why the incident occurred, its consequences have become one of the many risks caused by the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.
"Vandalism of the 'Nord Stream' pipeline opens Pandora's box"
The "Nord Stream-1" pipeline runs from Vyborg, Russia in the east, to Lubmin, Germany through the Baltic Seabed, and then connects the natural gas pipeline network in Germany and other European countries through two pipelines in Germany, which is Russia's main gas pipeline to Europe. The "Nord Stream-2" pipeline is basically parallel to the "Nord Stream-1" and has not yet been put into use.
At the end of September 2022, there were four leaks in the part of the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines located near Sweden and Denmark. The Swedish survey station detected a strong underwater explosion in the area where the pipeline leaked, and the incident was widely believed to be "sabotage". Russia has repeatedly called for a joint investigation, but Western countries have refused.
A few days ago, senior US investigative journalist Seymour Hersh quoted people familiar with the matter in his blog post as saying that in June 2022, during NATO's annual military exercise "Operation Baltic", US Navy divers planted remote-controlled bombs on the "Nord Stream" pipeline. On September 26 of the same year, Norwegian military aircraft dropped sonar buoys to detonate bombs, damaging three of the four pipelines "Nord Stream-1" and "Nord Stream-2". Hersh is a veteran American investigative journalist who has reported on the Maylai massacre caused by the U.S. military in the Vietnam War, and has also exposed the scandal of the abuse of prisoners in Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Szijjártó said on February 27 that the explosion of the Nord Stream gas pipeline was the first attack on critical infrastructure in Europe and should be regarded as a terrorist attack. Hungary supports a comprehensive, in-depth, systematic and detailed investigation of the incident so that the international community can know the truth. He said that the United Nations should become an important mechanism and platform for the investigation of the "Nord Stream" pipeline explosion.
"The nature of the damage to the Nord Stream pipeline is very serious." Demostnes Floros, senior energy economist and energy expert at the Italian Center for European Studies, said that the partial ownership of the pipeline belongs to several EU countries, and this is not just an attack against Russia. Politically, the destruction of the Nord Stream pipeline means that there is a conflict within NATO.
Finland's Helsinki Times newspaper believes that Hersh's investigative reporting is significant. The Nord Stream gas pipeline explosion caused huge environmental and social consequences, with huge losses to industry in several European countries, including Germany, and soaring energy prices in Europe.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Western countries lied to the Russian side about the bombing of the "Nord Stream" pipeline. Slutsky, chairman of the Russian State Duma's International Affairs Committee, said that Hersh's report was detailed and should form the basis of an independent international investigation. An article on the website of Russia's Moscow Evening News said: "The destruction of the Nord Stream pipeline has opened a Pandora's box, because there is a large amount of infrastructure on the global seabed, and it is dangerous to set such a precedent." ”
"This is an act of terrorism contrary to international law and should be tried by an international tribunal"
Jeffrey Sachs, a professor at Columbia University in the United States, said in an interview with British media that the United States hopes to sell more natural gas to Europe, unabashedly regards the "Nord Stream" gas pipeline as a threat, and regards it as a "stumbling block" in the process of NATO's expansion of military alliances and the advancement of strategic goals, "The United States looks at the world with zero-sum thinking and militarizes normal trade." ”
MEP Mick Wallace said that for strategic reasons, the United States has always wanted to undermine the close ties between Russia and Europe in energy and other aspects. The destruction of the Nord Stream pipeline is aimed at completely cutting off Russia's economic ties with Germany and other European countries.
Alain Corves, a former adviser to the French Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of the Interior, believes that from a political and economic point of view, the United States is the main beneficiary of this incident, "the purpose of the United States is to contain Germany through this incident, and at the same time can better attract European countries."
European Parliament member Gunal Baker said that the destruction of the Nord Stream pipeline is to prevent Russia from economic cooperation with other European countries. Western countries have no intention of publicly investigating the destruction of natural gas pipelines.
Former Austrian Foreign Minister Karin Knessl said that since 2018, the United States has been determined to make the Nord Stream gas pipeline inoperable in various ways, and the choice of blowing up the pipeline is shocking. "This is an act of terrorism contrary to international law and should be tried by an international tribunal."
Andrew Korybock, a Russian analyst on U.S. politics, said senior U.S. officials had already publicly threatened to sabotage the Nord Stream pipeline. After the destruction of the Nord Stream pipeline, the mutually beneficial strategic cooperation between Germany and Russia was seriously affected, but American energy companies were able to make huge profits from high-priced energy exports to the EU, so the United States had every incentive to sabotage the Nord Stream pipeline.
"The seriousness of the incident is unheard of, and the United States should respond credibly to what was disclosed"
For Hersh's disclosure, many mainstream media in the United States turned a blind eye. Juan Gonzalez, founder of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, said that after the Nord Stream pipeline bombing, the US media and Congress did not pay attention to the matter, "the media did not seem to be interested at all, did not want to know what happened there, and no one in the US Congress questioned it."
Canada's Western Standard website reported that after Hersh released her investigative report, few North American media contacted Hersh to follow up the report. Hersh said in an exclusive interview with the media a few days ago that in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, the US government does not care about the interests of Germany and other Western European countries, and "what the United States did in the bombing may reverse its intention to unite NATO."
Italian independent journalist Matteo Graziss said that the destruction of the Nord Stream gas pipeline has had a geopolitical impact, seriously threatened the stability of the international order, and is very bad in nature. If Hersh's disclosure is true, the United States has begun to attack its European allies. "The gravity of the incident is unheard of, and the United States should respond credibly to what was disclosed." But surprisingly, this investigation report was deliberately ignored by the Western media. ”
Russian Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov said that the vandalism should be characterized as a terrorist act against the vital energy infrastructure of the European continent, and "it is necessary to investigate transparently and thoroughly about this, but Western countries are very negative and this does not help to find out the truth."
Francesco Mariengio, president of the Italian New Silk Road Promotion Association, said that if Hersh's disclosure is true, it is an act of war by the United States against its allies and a very shocking scene in international relations recently. The international community should pay close attention to this and launch an independent investigation to find out the cause of the damage to the pipeline and make it public. "Being informed is a right, and that right should be returned to the international community to let people know what's going on."
When invited to brief the UN Security Council on February 21 on the bombing of the Nord Stream gas pipeline, Jeffrey Sachs said that the destruction of the Nord Stream pipeline was an "incident of international terrorism" and a threat to peace. It is incumbent upon the Council to identify the perpetrators in order to bring international justice to the victims and seek redress for the victims and to avoid the recurrence of such incidents. Sachs said the U.S. claimed that what Mr. Hirsh disclosed was "completely false," but did not provide any falsified information or other credible explanations. "Given that the incident is at stake for global security, the Security Council should request that the relevant States immediately submit their findings to the Council."
(Washington, London, Rome, Beijing, March 1)