Former Austrian FM Weighs in on Nord Stream Sabotage, Slams 'Emotional' EU Leaders

In an exclusive interview with Sputnik, Karin Kneissl recalls Washington’s early attempts to block Russia’s Nord Stream, while pointing at environmental aspects of the incident which left three gas pipelines damaged on September 26, 2022.

Former Austrian Minister of European and International Affairs Karin Kneissl has commented on US journalist Seymour Hersh's revelations about the September Nord Stream explosions. Pulitzer Prize-winner Hersh recently published an article indicating that the pipelines were destroyed on a direct order from US President Joe Biden in a covert mission performed by the US and Norwegian NAVY personnel – something which Oslo and Washington both deny.

When asked to weigh in on his findings, Kneissl said that America’s desire to prevent the pipeline project from completion was apparent even before the beginning of Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine.

“One thing was clear ever since 2018, that the US was very much determined to make sure that this pipeline system would never, ever become operative,” said Kneissl, who was serving as Austria’s top diplomat between 2017 and 2019 and now specializes in energy analysis and Middle Eastern affairs.

“I would not have expected them to even blow it up. But I said in public in 2018-2019, when I still served as minister - I said, my impression is that even if they cannot prevent its finalization in terms of construction, which they tried as much as they could, but finally it was finished, and then we had the whole certification process by the Germans, which was not really moving on, and then, something has happened, which happened in 2022.”

Kneissl appeared to be surprised by the alleged role of Norway in destroying the pipelines, pointing at Oslo’s earlier peacekeeping initiatives, and the signing of the Oslo accords with the participation of Norway in 1993 and 1995, which contributed significantly to the Middle East peace process:

“Let us remember the Oslo agreements of the early 1990s. You had many Norwegian ministers of foreign affairs, prime ministers, who actively invested themselves often in a very clever and discreet way to make diplomacy happen. So the fact that Norway is actively involved in such a, let's call it “act of terrorism”, breach of international law, breach of the United Nations Charter, is really, to me, a big surprise.”

The former Austrian top diplomat also mentioned the environmental aspects of the Nord Stream sabotage, which, in her opinion, did not get enough international attention:

“Some people said in the early days of October last year that this was a major damage to the environment, to marine life, from dolphins to whales, to plants. Nobody has ever spoken about that. Not in October, not now. So now we know most probably it was some sort of covert action by the CIA plus militaries, state agencies - Norway, UK, maybe even Sweden. We have no idea. But there are many perpetrators. So since there is such a tremendous state of alert when it comes to climate change, why is there not a state of alert of people who would say 'well, what happened there?' I mean, this was a deliberate action against the environment as well.”

When talking about the current situation in Ukraine and the West’s support of the Kiev regime, Kneissl said that European politicians lack a rational approach and are guided by emotions when making their decisions:

“I wouldn't say that it's just one big group of teenagers, but those who have to say and those who have in our time, unfortunately, the support of the published opinion, are very much into emotion, whether it's [President of the European Commission] Mrs. Ursula von der Leyen, who, I think, is in her early sixties now - I mean, she's a far cry away from being a teenager, [German Foreign Minister] Mrs. Annalena Baerbock is in mid-forties. But they behave - all of them, in an emotional and not in a rational way. And this is the big issue. So let the adults enter the room, please.”

On Budapest and Vienna’s joint decision to abstain from supplying weapons to Ukraine, the former minister drew a line between Austria and Hungary, saying that Budapest’s position on the Ukrainian issue has been much more neutral from day one, especially compared with Austria’s role:

“In Austria you have a much more warmongering atmosphere on all levels, not only in the media," said Kneissl.

When it comes to Russia’s “eastwards turn” and Moscow’s newly-signed gas exports contracts with China, Kneissl pointed at the long-term nature of Sino-Russian cooperation in the energy area, saying that plans to sell Russian gas to China were in the works way before the conflict in Ukraine has started.

Kneissl also commented on Turkiye’s plans to play a bigger role in exporting natural gas to Europe, describing Ankara’s gas export projects which were launched during the past two decades in detail.

After completing her term as foreign minister, Kneissl was forced to leave her home country, facing attacks in the media, harassment and death threats. After an unsuccessful attempt to move to France, where harassment continued, she currently resides in Lebanon.