UN Must 'Give Framework' for Nord Stream Blasts Probe, Hungarian FM Says

04:42 GMT, 27 February 2023

UNITED NATIONS (Sputnik) - The United Nations should get involved in investigating the explosions at the Nord Stream gas pipelines, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said in an interview with RIA Novosti.

Sputnik

"I think in such kind of issue, the United Nations definitely should have a role. Why? Because the United Nations has not been created as an integration for like-minded countries. The United Nations has been created to serve as a platform for countries to talk to each other, who even consider each other as enemies. …I think the UN should give framework for such kind of an investigation. I think UN could be a good platform for such an investigation," Szijjarto said.

Earlier in February, Pulitzer Prize-winning US investigative journalist Seymour Hersh published a report saying that, during NATO Baltops exercises in the summer of 2022, US Navy divers planted explosives to destroy the Nord Stream pipelines, which Norway activated three months later. The report added that US President Joe Biden had decided to sabotage the Nord Streams after more than nine months of secret discussions with the national security team.

"When it comes to this whole challenging security environment, I do believe that UN should play a bigger role here. Because UN is basically kind of last resort, where everybody is being represented, where any kind of discussion can take place, because everybody is here. And under the UN umbrella, even enemies could and should talk to each other. So I do believe that UN should really play its role because currently this is not the case," Szijjarto said.

The underwater explosions took place in September 2022, damaging three of the four strings of Nord Stream 1 and 2. Germany, Denmark, and Sweden launched separate investigations into the incident - however, the European nations sidelined Moscow from their probes, not providing any data on their findings.