The White House has firmly denied recent allegations by journalist Seymour Hersh that the US was involved in the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines last year.
Hersh published a report claiming that US Navy divers, with assistance from Norway, planted explosives on the pipelines running under the Baltic Sea between Russia and Germany in June 2022 and detonated them three months later.
White House National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson referred to Hersh’s report as “complete fiction,” while a CIA spokesperson called it “completely and utterly false,” according to TASS.
The September explosions were initially blamed on Russia by Western countries, but investigations conducted by Swedish, Danish, and German authorities have not yet determined the responsible party.
Hersh claimed that the decision to bomb the pipelines was made in secret by US President Joe Biden to cut off Russia’s natural gas sales to Europe and to decrease Moscow’s political leverage over Germany and Western Europe.
In the lead up to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Hersh stated that Biden publicly announced that the US would not allow the new Nord Stream 2 pipeline to be opened if Russia attacked Ukraine.
According to Hersh, who cites an anonymous source, the plan to sabotage the pipelines was discussed among Biden’s top national security advisers in December 2021 as a response to Russia’s expected invasion of Ukraine.
Hersh alleges that the CIA developed the plan and, under the cover of NATO exercises, the Navy divers planted the explosives with the help of Norway.
After the pipelines erupted in September, several countries were suspected of being responsible for the sabotage, including Russia, Germany, Ukraine, Poland, Britain, and the United States.
Despite Western accusations against Russia, Moscow has accused the US and Britain of being responsible for the sabotage.
Meanwhile, the United Nations (UN) said it was unable to verify Hersh’s report about Washington being behind the Nord Stream explosions.
A deputy spokesperson for the UN, Secretary-General Farhan Haq, said during a Wednesday briefing, “I have no way of verifying this particular report. Obviously, it would be up to US journalists to determine the veracity of these claims. And beyond that, I wouldn’t have any comment at this stage.”
