Brussels: Europe and the Arabs
 
US State Department spokesman Ned Price said, in response to a question about Kiev's involvement in the "Nord Stream" bombings, that he does not confirm or comment on the details, and does not rule out anything emerging from the investigations.

Commenting on the recent publications in a number of media regarding the bombing of the "Northern Stream" gas pipelines, Price said: "As for all these reports, I cannot confirm them."

He added: "We will wait for the completion of these investigations before we comment on them," referring to the investigations being conducted by Germany, Denmark and Sweden on the incident.

Price said: "They will report on the findings of their investigations. We will not get ahead of their findings, and recommended contacting representatives of these countries for comments."

Asked if he rejected claims by The New York Times, whose sources said a pro-Ukrainian group could be responsible for the pipeline bombings, Price replied: "I don't deny anything, I don't acknowledge anything, I don't rule anything out." Issued. All I am saying is that we do not confirm or comment on specific details in any of the news that came in the past few days."

He added, "We are doing this for a very simple reason.. The investigations are ongoing, and our usual position is to wait for the results of the investigation. This is what we are doing now."

Price stressed that the US administration still insists that the suspicions about its involvement in sabotaging the "Northern Stream" pipelines are absurd, but Washington does not rule out any theories about who is responsible.

Yesterday, the White House called for not pre-empting the results of European countries' investigations into sabotaging the "Northern Stream" gas pipelines, in its first comment on the "New York Times" report on the incident.

US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby indicated, during a press conference on Tuesday, that investigations by Germany, Sweden and Denmark are continuing.

He added, "The three investigations are continuing, and they have not ended. As far as I know, no country has publicly revealed what it found," noting that the US administration considers what happened an "act of sabotage."

This came in response to a report by the New York Times, which quoted US officials as saying that the new intelligence indicates that a "pro-Ukrainian group" was behind the bombing of Russia's "Northern Stream" pipelines in the Baltic Sea last September.

According to the newspaper, the group included Ukrainian or Russian citizens, or both, but there is no evidence of the involvement of the Ukrainian authorities in the operation, nor was there any evidence that Russia or the United States was behind the operation, as no approval was issued from the president. American Joe Biden or senior US officials to carry out the bombing, according to the newspaper.

Officials indicated that this information is still preliminary, and that there are many things that are still ambiguous or unknown. They refused to disclose the nature of the intelligence they had or how it was obtained.
On the other hand, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko briefed, on Wednesday, the participants in a meeting of senior officials of the East Asian Summit countries in Jakarta, about the military and political threats to NATO in the Asia-Pacific region, according to the Russian Foreign Ministry.

The ministry added - in a statement reported by the Russian agency "Tass" - "During the exchange of views on topical issues in the Asia-Pacific region, the participants in the meeting were briefed on Russia's approaches to the military and political risks associated with the emergence of a network of groups and projects of a conglomerate type that involve The possibility of a major conflict in the region.

Russia also reaffirmed its consistent policy of preserving and strengthening the system of inter-state relations in the region, based on the multilateral cooperation platforms established by ASEAN, including the mechanisms of the East Asia Summit and the ASEAN Regional Security Forum, as well as the ASEAN Southeast Asian countries, the meeting of defense ministers.

"At the same time, the partners' attention was also drawn to the importance of strengthening synergies between the potential of ASEAN and other practice-oriented regional platforms, primarily the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the Eurasian Economic Union, for collective creative action in the common space of Eurasia," the statement continued.

According to the statement, the main topic of the event was preparations for the upcoming meetings of national leaders and foreign ministers on the platform of the East Asia Summit. The Russian side stressed the importance of continuing joint practical work on the main tracks of the forum's activities, including the implementation of high-level decisions regarding launching regional cooperation mechanisms in the field of response to combating the epidemic and developing tourism.

Source: agencies