Herman Van Rompuy
The European Council President, Herman Van Rompuy, has said in a live interview with the RTBF TV and Radio Company that recent statements by the US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, Victoria Nuland, about the European Union are unacceptable. Van Rompuy concedes that these comments should be considered in the context of a private telephone conversation, where they were actually made.
The EC President pointed out that the European Union
has been pursuing the correct policy on Ukraine. “I don’t think our US
colleagues should interfere in the EU policy”, he said.
A
recording of Nuland’s telephone conversation with the US Ambassador to
Kiev, Geoffrey Pyatt, was earlier posted on the Internet, in which they
discussed at length the various aspects of forming Ukraine’s new
Cabinet. Nuland was specifically opposed to inviting the UDAR party
leader Vitaly Klitschko to join the new Cabinet and thought the chairman
of the Batkivshchina party political council, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, was
the best option.
She used the f-word when referring to the European Union and explained how she had drawn into play a former US diplomat Jeffrey Feltman, who is currently the UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, to help settle problems concerning the formation of a Ukrainian government.
She used the f-word when referring to the European Union and explained how she had drawn into play a former US diplomat Jeffrey Feltman, who is currently the UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, to help settle problems concerning the formation of a Ukrainian government.
Nuland has since officially
apologized to Brussels for the word she used with regard to the EU. She
was in contact with her EU colleagues and has clearly apologized, State
Department official spokesperson Jen Psaki told a news briefing on
Thursday.
Russia denies role in Nuland call leak which revealed US role in Ukraine
Russian
officials on Friday denied they were behind the Internet posting of an
embarrassing phone call between two top US diplomats discussing a
response to the political crisis in conflicted Ukraine.
Dmitry
Loskutov said that he was browsing the Internet when he saw the video,
in which the top US diplomat for Europe, Victoria Nuland, disparages the
European Union on his "friend's feed in a social network".
Loskutov,
an aide to Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, told The Associated
Press in a telephone interview that his decision to repost the video had
no connection with his work for the Russian government.
The Russian official posted a link on Twitter
which he said proved that another anonymous user had posted the video on
Wednesday, the day before he did.
"I think you're
better off asking the titushki (about the origins of the video)," he
said, using the word that Ukrainian protesters have used to describe
violent, government-paid thugs who are meant to delegitimize the protest
movement.
Rogozin, Loskutov's boss, was unavailable
for comment but posted an indirect and vociferous response to American
accusations online on Friday.
"While the westerners weave little intrigues and get into scandals, Russia is helping the regions of Ukraine to restore lost connections with our industries," he wrote on the blogging platform Twitlonger on Friday morning ahead of a meeting with Ukrainian industrialists.
"Maybe then there will be fewer unemployed and embittered people to organize riots in their own cities with foreign money," Rogozin said.
In
the video, voices resembling those of Nuland and the US ambassador to
Ukraine discuss international efforts to resolve Ukraine's ongoing
political crisis. At one point, the Nuland voice suggests that the EU's
position should be ignored. "F--- the EU," the female voice said.
US diplomat refuses to comment on EU leak, says conversation 'private'
Washington's
top diplomat for Europe, Victoria Nuland, declined on Friday to comment
on a leaked phone conversation in which she apparently used the f-word
regarding the European Union's handling of the crisis in Ukraine.
"I
will not comment on a private diplomatic conversation," Nuland told
reporters in Kiev after talks with the opposition and President Viktor
Yanukovych.
EU is not 'aggressive enough in Ukraine' - new Youtube leak of German diplomat
The
European Union was frustrated with the United States over suggestions
that the bloc was not being aggressive enough in Ukraine, according to a
leaked telephone conversation involving allegedly EU diplomat Helga
Schmid and posted on YouTube.
"What really aggravates
us (is) that the Americans are going around and pillorying the EU and
saying that we are too soft," Schmid, the deputy secretary general of
the EU's diplomatic corps, can be heard saying in German.
She was reportedly speaking with Jan Tombinski, the EU's ambassador to Ukraine.
Schmid
asks him to tell the US ambassador that "we are absolutely not soft,"
noting the EU "just doesn't shout from the rooftops because that is much
more effective."
Schmid says that Catherine Ashton, the EU's top diplomat, would address the issue with US Secretary of State John Kerry.
The conversation appears to have taken place last month, as Schmid mentions a January 31 EU statement as "going out now."
US's Nuland apologizes for 'f..k EU' comment in conversation on Ukrainian opposition
Spokesperson
for the US Department of State Jen Psaki has stated that Assistant
Secretary of State Victoria Nuland had apologized to her European
counterparts for a rude statement in their address issued in the course
of a conversation with the US Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt.
Nuland
found herself implicated in the scandal after she was heard using swear
words during a discussion of the events in Ukraine.
The supposed telephone conversation between Nuland and the US Ambassador in Kiev Jeffrey Payet was intercepted and posted on YouTube,
RT informs. The four-minute audio recording entitled "Puppets of
Maidan" was published by user Re Post. According to RT, the recording
was released by the security service of Ukraine. According
to Psaki, Victoria Nuland "contacted her counterparts in the EU and, of
course, apologized for the above mentioned comment."
In
the telephone conversation with US Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey
Pyatt, Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland was discussing which
one of the Ukrainian oppositionists should be appointed to the new
government. Nuland, in particular, was opposed to leader of "Udar"
(Blow) Vitali Klitschko's entering the government and supported the
candidacy of Arseniy Yatseniuk from "Batkivshchyna" (Fatherland), to the
post of Prime Minister. In this same conversation Nuland obscenely
spoke about the European Union and expressed hope that the UN will help
the United States to "teach a lesson to the EU."
The officials also discussed the need to "seal the deal" in Ukraine as soon as possible so Russia does not benefit. When the conversation turned to the topic of the European Union, the woman who was taken for Nuland began to use foul language. The participant of the conversation reported that one of the experts of the Department of State on Ukraine, Jeff Feltman, had allegedly persuaded UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon into sending his special envoy, Robert Serry, to Kiev. "So, that would be great, I think, to help glue this thing and have the UN help glue it and … the EU," she said. At this point she used a swear word "F*** the ЕU".
The officials also discussed the need to "seal the deal" in Ukraine as soon as possible so Russia does not benefit. When the conversation turned to the topic of the European Union, the woman who was taken for Nuland began to use foul language. The participant of the conversation reported that one of the experts of the Department of State on Ukraine, Jeff Feltman, had allegedly persuaded UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon into sending his special envoy, Robert Serry, to Kiev. "So, that would be great, I think, to help glue this thing and have the UN help glue it and … the EU," she said. At this point she used a swear word "F*** the ЕU".
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