Note: A full summary of this afternoon's Security Council meeting will be made available upon completion.
Briefings
BRYCE GREENE, independent journalist, said that his media-criticism work and study of the Ukraine war led him to investigate the Nord Stream attack. Recalling a series of leaks along the Nord Stream route in 2022, he pointed out that seismology reports indicated sabotage, not an accident. He said that, for Western officials, experts and press, "the culprit was clear: Russia", pointing to an assumption that "Russia attacked themselves to intimidate the West". He then cited a leading Swedish investigator, who said: "Do I think it was Russia that blew up Nord Stream? I never thought so. It is not logical." He also noted that, by immediately blaming the Russian Federation, another apparent culprit - the United States - was almost completely ignored as a potential suspect.
He went on to say that a strategy of the United States and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has been to prevent integration between Western Europe and the Russian Federation. On that, he recalled the words of NATO's first Secretary General that the alliance's role was to "keep the Russians out, Americans in, and the Germans down". Noting that three successive United States Administrations have "done their best to stop the pipeline", he pointed out that a 2019 RAND Corporation study was about "ways to overextend and unbalance Russia". The study also included a recommendation on how to "reduce [Russian] natural-gas exports and hinder pipeline expansions". In addition, at the start of the Joseph R. Biden Administration, the United States Secretary of State told Congress he was "determined to do whatever he could to prevent Nord Stream 2 from being completed".
Recalling that the White House has called Seymour Hersh's article on the pipeline attacks "completely and utterly false", he said that such denials carry no real information considering the United States' interest in the explosions. Moreover, Ukraine has ample reason to want the pipeline gone, and he noted that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy advocated for bolder moves against the Russian Federation, including pipeline attacks. More so, Washington, D.C., has been training Ukrainians in undersea operations, similar to the one that must have been carried out against Nord Stream 2, he said. He emphasized: "It is likely that the United States knows far more about what happened, and who is responsible, then it is revealing."
Citing a New York Times article that stated "it may be in no one's interest to reveal more", he stressed: "No one's interest? Is this serious? They have abdicated their role." While the West "has let these revelations sink into the background", he said that the attack originated in the West, that the Baltic Operations exercises were the staging ground and that the United States knows more than it is sharing. In this regard, he urged both the Security Council and the Western media to shed light on the situation and ensure accountability.
JEFFREY A. BRODSKY, independent journalist, said that he is the only journalist to travel to all four blast sites in the Baltic Sea, noting that he has been investigating the sabotage of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines since it occurred on 26 September 2022. He said he does not represent any Government or organization and speaks on his own behalf. Under the Charter of the United Nations, two of the Council's functions are "to maintain international peace and security in accordance with the principles and purposes of the United Nations" and "to investigate any dispute or situation which might lead to international friction", he pointed out.
He went on to say that bringing the perpetrator of the Nord Stream sabotage to international justice and compensating the harmed parties will advance international peace and security, reduce international friction and help prevent future attacks on critical international infrastructure. "I therefore appeal to the Security Council to execute its functions and power under the UN Charter by conducting an impartial investigation into the Nord Stream sabotage," he urged, adding that he participated in an independent expedition involving all four blast sites in late May.
On that, he noted that neither the data obtained from the expedition, nor his investigative work, have been able to conclusively attribute the sabotage to a specific State. Perhaps, only the Council would be able to make such an attribution, he said, adding: "I am confident many people around the world would welcome this body's assistance." Germany, Denmark and Sweden - the three countries that have investigated the sabotage - have shown no willingness to share their results with the public. "The Nord Stream sabotage stands as one of the most significant acts of ecoterrorism and industrial sabotage in history," he underscored, and it also "represents one of the most pressing geopolitical mysteries of our time".
Noting that many people worldwide have lost faith in national and international institutions, he said that the condemnation of this act of global terrorism - and the swift establishment of a Council-led investigation - could help restore some of that lost faith. "The world is watching - and expecting - the UN Security Council to uncover the truth about the sabotage and to share this truth publicly," he added.
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