• 'Why has the US changed its high tone of demanding inquiry into the Nord Stream explosion but become silent after US journalist Seymour Hersh’s revelation?' says official

By Islamuddin Sajid

ANKARA (AA) – China on Friday questioned the US' silence following an award-winning journalist investigative report on the Nord Stream gas pipeline explosions.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin during a regular press briefing in Beijing also asked the US to explain what three objects it shot down after the recent balloon incident.

"Why has the US changed its high tone of demanding inquiry into the Nord Stream explosion but become silent after US journalist Seymour Hersh’s revelation?," Global Times quoted Wang as saying.

His remarks came after Russia's lower house of parliament, formally known as the State Duma, voted unilaterally on Thursday to prepare an appeal to the UN Security Council, asking for an investigation into the explosions at Nord Stream gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea.

The blasts took place on Sept. 26 last year, causing major ruptures and gas leaks from the two pipelines that run from Russia to Germany under the Baltic Sea.

Officials from countries in the region have said sabotage was a likely cause of the incident.

On Feb.8, an American investigative journalist and Pulitzer Prize winner Seymour Hersh published the results of his own investigation into the explosions, claiming that the US Navy divers, with the support of Norwegian specialists, laid explosive devices under Russian gas pipelines in June 2022 under the cover of the Baltops military exercises.

According to Hersh, the decision about the operation was made by US President Biden following nine months of discussions with administration officials, responsible for national security issues.

China's Foreign Ministry spokesman said Washington should explain the reasons for the vinyl chloride explosion, referring to a train derailment on Feb. 3 in East Palestine, Ohio state, that was carrying chemicals and combustible materials, with vinyl chloride, and caused a massive fire and smoke into the sky and over the town.

Wang also demanded that the US explain the three objects it shot down after the balloon incident.

US President Joe Biden said on Thursday that three aerial objects downed in American and Canadian airspace are "most likely" balloons belonging to private companies or institutions.

The objects were shot down by US jets in the immediate aftermath of the discovery of a Chinese suspected surveillance balloon, which was taken down off the coast of the state of South Carolina on Feb. 4 after crossing the continental US, including sensitive military sites that Washington believes it was likely conducting surveillance on the facilities.