Nord Stream blasts: EU brands Hersh’s investigation as 'speculation'

Brussels: US journalist Seymour Hersh’s claim that the Nord Stream gas pipelines were blown up by the US with Norway’s support under the cover of the BALTOPS exercise is mere “speculations,” said European Commission’s Press Officer Andrea Masini on Monday, adding that the commission is not going to comment on them. “We do not comment on speculations about the perpetrators of the sabotage against the Nord Stream pipelines. The only basis for any possible response can be the outcome of an official investigation. Such investigations are the responsibility of the competent authorities of the Member States concerned. And they are still ongoing. So far, it has only been established that the pipelines were destroyed by a deliberate act of sabotage,” the official told TASS news agency. This was the European Commission’s first reaction to the article published by Hersh on February 8. “In light of the sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines, we have taken swift action to accelerate work in three priority areas: preparedness, response and international cooperation,” the commission’s representative noted. US denies involvement in Nord Stream pipeline burst White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said “not a shred” of Hersh’s report alleging the US involvement in the Nord Stream gas pipelines explosions is true. “It’s a completely false story. There is no truth to it. Not a shred of it. It is not true. The United States, and no proxies of the United States had anything to do with that, nothing,” Kirby told Fox News on Sunday when he was asked about Pulitzer Award-winning investigative journalist and former New Yorker staff writer Seymour Hersh. In a report on 8 February, Hersh citied an anonymous source claiming that the 26 September Nord Stream pipeline bursts were carried out by US Navy divers which they claimed to be a NATO military exercise. Read all the Latest News , Trending News ,  Cricket News , Bollywood News , India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.