“You are to think that the reports that the United States Government had anything to do with the undersea blast against the Nord Stream pipelines is ridiculous. We can discount that out of hand,” says U.S. State Department Spokesperson Ned Price. Price also expresses doubts about the other recent allegations of guilt.
” The anonymous claim in the first report [New York Times article, ed.], as I understand the chronology of this, to be clear, is not downgraded intelligence shared by the U.S. Government,” Price says. Moreover, to his knowledge, no German, Swedish or Danish authorities are mentioned by name in any of the articles, while these three countries are solely responsible for the investigation. ” In all countries, of course, there are leaks, the veracity of which we’ll defer to you all to judge,” Price says. “But we are going to let these investigations play out. We are going to wait to hear from the investigators themselves who presumably when these investigations conclude will speak on a named attributable basis to their findings.”
Suspected information from any part of the world would not move the US to speculation or action – not even allegedly American sources. The investigation, Price says, are in the hands of the three European nations mentioned. The United States have trust in the independence and capability of the institutions entrusted with this investigation. Price stressed: “It is incumbent on our European partners who are capable, who are competent, in whom we have full faith and confidence to conduct these investigations on an impartial basis and to come to their own conclusions.”
The United Nations Security Council had only addressed the Nord Stream pipelines blast on February 21, 2023 at Russia’s instigation. On that occasion, Denmark, Germany and Sweden informed that there were no results yet from the investigations, that were still ongoing. “We should avoid any unfounded accusations that could further escalate the already heightened tensions in the region and potentially inhibit the search for the truth,” said Rosemary DiCarlo, UN Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, at that Security Council meeting. DiCarlo said the UN was also “not in a position to verify or confirm any of the claims relating to these incidents, and we await the findings of ongoing national investigations.”
Dorothee Frank, Head of editorial team
