UN Security Council votes against Russian resolution on Nord Stream sabotage
The UN Security Council on Monday did not endorse a Russian-Chinese proposal on an international investigation into the Nord Stream sabotage, Russian news agency TASS reported.
The resolution was supported by 3 countries, with zero votes against, and 12 countries abstaining. Thus, the resolution failed to receive the nine votes needed for approval.
The resolution was supported by Russia, China and Brazil, Albania, Britain, Gabon, Ghana, Malta, Mozambique, the United Arab Emirates, the US, France, Switzerland, Ecuador and Japan abstained.
The resolution was also co-authored by Belarus, Venezuela, the DPRK, Nicaragua, Syria and Eritrea. However, these are not members of the State Security Council and did not participate in the voting.
Russian news agency TASS reported that the UN Security Council will vote on Monday on a Russian-Chinese draft resolution on an international investigation into the sabotage of the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines.
Text of the proposed draft UN Secretary-General António Guterres establishes an international independent commission to conduct a comprehensive, transparent and impartial investigation into all aspects of the acts of sabotage on the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines, including identifying . Perpetrators, sponsors, organizers and their associates.
The document encouraged countries conducting their investigations to cooperate fully with the Commission and to share information with it. TASS reported that the document urged these countries to share information with other interested parties as well.
Russia prepared a first version of the Nord Stream resolution in late February, but did not immediately bring it to a vote, instead inviting members of the Security Council to discuss the document. Since then three sets of consultations were held.
A resolution must be supported by at least nine Security Council members to be adopted. Any of the permanent members can veto it, but only if the required number of votes are obtained for the document to be passed. If the resolution receives eight votes and the United States votes against it, it means that the veto was not used.
However, if the document receives nine or more votes, the veto power will be used to vote against it, TASS reported.
According to Vasily Nebenzya, Russia’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, “It’s not about the number of votes, it’s about the way they vote.”
First, Western countries claimed that Russia was isolated and did not have Security Council support, as it opposes the UN Security Council initiative on Ukraine, while the rest of the Council either supports it or remain absent, TASS reported.
The draft resolution was previously co-sponsored by China. Other permanent members of the Security Council, including the United Kingdom, the United States and France, are unlikely to support it and may vote against or abstain to avoid being accused of obstructing the work of the Security Council. Other Western Security Council members – Albania, Malta, Switzerland and Japan – will likely vote as heads of their bloc.
On 26 March, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry revealed plans to convene an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council in response to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s statement that he intended to deploy tactical nuclear weapons on the territory of Belarus. The time hasn’t been decided yet.
On September 27 last year, Nord Stream AG reported “unprecedented damage” on three lines of the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines. TASS reported that Swedish seismologists recorded two explosions that occurred on September 26 near the pipeline route.
The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office launched a criminal case on charges of international terrorism.
On 8 February, American investigative journalist Seymour Hersh published an article citing sources saying that US Navy divers planted explosive devices under the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines in June 2022 under the guise of the BALTOPS exercise were and activated by the Norwegians. The bomb detonated three months later, TASS reported.
According to the journalist, the decision to conduct the operation was taken personally by US President Joe Biden after nine months of discussions with White House security experts.
Adrienne Watson, a spokeswoman for the White House National Security Council, said in a comment to TASS that Hersh’s account was “completely false and completely fictitious”.
Kumud Sharma is the First Well-Known Female Journalist of the Journalism World of Himachal Pradesh. I am the Founder, Editor in Chief, Managing Director, Promoter of Diary Times. As a Female Journalist, With My Experience of More Than Nine Years, I Tell You Every News of Himachal Pradesh From The Ground Level With Absolutely Accurate and Correct Information, Be it the Politics of Himachal Pradesh or the Ground Reality, My Perspective On Every News Will Give You Assurance. I Assure You That Every News of Mine Will Comply With the Expertise and Fact Checking Policy.
