The draft resolution gathered three votes in favor, zero against, and 12 abstentions. Most of the countries condemned the attacks, but justified their abstention with the other three ongoing investigations.
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The United Nations Security Council on Monday rejected a Russian-proposed draft resolution that would ask the secretary-general to set up an international commission to conduct an investigation into the Nord Stream pipeline explosions.
The draft resolution gathered three votes in favor, zero against and 12 abstentionsby failing to gather the necessary support for its approval.
Russia, China and Brazil were the countries that voted in favor of the draft resolution. The attacks on the Nord Stream pipelines, which were not in service at the time of the incident, occurred on September 26, 2022, causing two leaks on each of them, all in international waters.
In the absence of a permanent member’s veto, a draft resolution on non-procedural issues requires nine votes in favor to be adopted, so Russia failed to garner the necessary support.
The Russian proposal -co-sponsored by China, Belarus, Venezuela, North Korea, Nicaragua, Syria and Eritrea- entrusted the Secretary General of the United Nations, António Guterres, to create a commission of international experts to analyze what happened and identify those responsible. for the attack and its accomplices.
At the meeting on Monday, most countries condemned the attacks on gas pipelines, but justified the abstention with which there are already three other investigations in progressnamely by Germany, Sweden and Denmark, and argued that a UN investigation could take place when the national investigations are completed.
However, the Russian ambassador to the UN, Vasily Nebenzya, said he had “serious doubts about the objectivity and transparency of the national investigations carried out by some European states” and again accused the United States of trying to hide the truth of the facts.
According to the Russian representative, these investigative processes can last for years, which reinforces his suspicions that “they are not trying to clarify what happened, but to hide evidence and clean up the crime scene.”
“I think that after today’s vote, the suspicion about who is behind the act of sabotage in Nord Stream is obvious. In the eyes of the entire world, the United States and its allies have done everything possible so that there is no international investigation into what happened,” Nebenzya said.
The United States, for its part, once again rejected Russia’s “baseless accusations.”
Source: Observadora
