Berlin Slams Top US Diplomat For Derogatory Remark On EU

Berlin, Feb 8, IRNA -- A German government spokesperson here Friday lambasted a top American diplomat who used an expletive to describe the European Union in a leaked telephone conversation about Ukraine. Speaking at a routine weekly press briefing, spokeswoman Christiane Wirtz said the derogatory statements by US Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland are in the view of Chancellor Angela Merkel ˈabsolutely unacceptable.ˈ In the recorded comments to US ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt, which were posted on YouTube Tuesday, but were widely reported late Thursday, Nuland is overheard venting her frustration over the mass protests in Ukraine. ˈSo that would be great, I think, to help glue this thing and have the UN help glue it, and, you know, f... the EU,ˈ said Nuland who has refused to comment on it, saying it was a ˈprivate diplomatic conversation.ˈ While Nuland had reportedly claimed she had already apologized to the European Union partners, a spokesman for the German foreign ministry said his ministry had not yet received such an apology. The issue of spying on the phone conversations of politicians is a very touchy one in Germany in the wake of revelations that the US intelligence agency NSA had for years wiretapped cell phone conversations of Merkel, her predecessor Gerhard Schroeder and other leading German politicians./end