Germany mum on Nord Stream explosions amid U.S. sabotage claims

BERLIN, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- The German government is keeping mum about the explosions that destroyed the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines on Sept. 26 last year, although the country continues to suffer from a severe energy crisis following the disruption of Russian gas supplies.

Not even allowing access to members of the German Bundestag (lower house of Parliament), all information on the matter has been classified as "highly confidential" because of the so-called third-party rule that 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 explosions of the pipelines.

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 imports of more expensive liquefied natural gas (LNG).

CLAIMS OF U.S. SABOTAGE

The collective silence of governments in Europe has created a news vacuum that is now being filled. In his article, Hersh alleged that U.S. divers covertly planted the explosives on the Nord Stream pipelines under the guise of a widely publicized mid-summer North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) exercise.

Hersh wrote that three months later, the remotely triggered 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 U.S. President Joe Biden's declaration at a joint White House press conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Feb. 7 last year also leaves little room for interpretation.

In the event of a special military operation by Russia in Ukraine, Biden clearly stated that "there will be ... no longer a Nord Stream 2. We will bring 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'll promise you, we will be able to do it."

ONGOING SECRECY

This week, Denmark, Germany and Sweden told the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) in a joint letter that investigations are "ongoing." Nothing was said about who is responsible. They only stated that "investigations have not yet been concluded" and "it is not possible to say when they will be concluded."

German industrial and domestic energy markets benefitted enormously from the cheap natural gas coming straight into its Lubmin Nord Stream 1 terminals. The United States, however, has become increasingly concerned about this reliance on Russian energy and the weakening of the U.S. energy export market.

Following the destruction of the Nord Stream pipelines, the United States is set to increase its LNG exports.

At a press conference, Secretary of State Antony Blinken asserted that "it is a tremendous opportunity to once and for all remove the dependence on Russian energy."

Russia has requested the UNSC to conduct an independent inquiry into the explosions on the Nord Stream pipelines.