On Monday night, EU officials unveiled a planned clearing house that would allow international companies, including all of Europe, Russia, and China, to continue trading with Iran while circumventing US banking sanctions.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said it was “deeply disappointing” to hear that the plan existed, and that he considers it an attempt to bolster Iran’s “ranking as the number one state sponsor of terror,” and counterproductive to US goals.

Not complying with US goals is very much the point. The US withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal, and has been trying to impose trading sanctions since then. All other nations remain in the nuclear deal, and are trying to save the deal by letting trade continue to flow.

In the latest sign of the growing divide between Washington and its allies, the European Union’s foreign policy chief announced Monday that the bloc was creating a new payment mechanism to allow countries to transact with Iran while avoiding U.S. sanctions.

Called the “special purpose vehicle” (SPV), this mechanism would aim to “assist and reassure economic operators pursuing legitimate business with Iran,” according to a joint statement released by the remaining members of the Iran nuclear deal — France, Britain, Germany, Russia and China.

“This will mean that EU member states will set up a legal entity to facilitate legitimate financial transactions with Iran and this will allow European companies to continue to trade with Iran in accordance with European Union law and could be open to other partners in the world,” Federica Mogherini, the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs, told the UN General Assembly on Tuesday.

In a major snub to the United States, the European Union has decided to set up a new mechanism to enable legal trade with Iran without encountering US sanctions.

The EU will create new payment channels to preserve oil and other business deals with Iran, Federica Mogherini, the bloc's foreign policy chief said late on Monday, in a bid to evade US punitive measures.

US President Donald Trump withdrew from a 2015 nuclear deal in May and re-imposed sanctions on the country.

In a stunning vote of “no confidence” in the US monopoly over global payment infrastructure, one month ago Germany’s foreign minister Heiko Maas called for the creation of a new payments system independent of the US that would allow Brussels to be independent in its financial operations from Washington and as a means of rescuing the nuclear deal between Iran and the west.

Writing in the German daily Handelsblatt, Maas said “Europe should not allow the US to act over our heads and at our expense. For that reason it’s essential that we strengthen European autonomy by establishing payment channels that are independent of the US, creating a European Monetary Fund and building up an independent Swift system,” he wrote.

The Hungarian parliament has passed new legislation that criminalises lawyers and activists who help asylum seekers.

Anyone “facilitating illegal immigration” will face a year in jail.

Viktor Orban’s government has dubbed the legislation the “Stop Soros law”, after the billionaire philanthropist it accuses of supporting Muslim migrants.

The vote in Budapest came hours after a number of European Union leaders agreed to hold crisis talks on how to overhaul asylum rules.

Hungary says immigration threatens its national security, but its hardline stance and new law have faced widespread international criticism.

In a major development meant to stave off the socio-political collapse of the EU in the face of rising Euroscepticism in ‘Tier II and III’ EU countries, the Union has confirmed its abandonment of the policy of mandatory migrant relocation. Under the former program, Brussels made decisions about where ‘excess’ immigrants would be relocated within the EU. This placed an undue burden on countries in the EU which do not have the economic basis, employment figures, GDP growth, or social-framework to take on an inflow of migrants from ‘crisis zones’ in Africa and the Middle-east. It should also be noted that, politically and militarily, ‘Tier III’ EU countries such as Poland do not have an imperialist economic or military history with regions where migrant flows stem from. This fact turns the standard left-wing argument for open-borders on its head, within the now abandoned framework.

Poland's wish to host a US military base shows that the country, possessed by its resentment toward Russia, still "lives in illusion," Jean-Luc Schaffhauser, a member of the European Parliament and of French party National Rally (RN), told Sputnik.

US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday in a meeting with his Polish counterpart Andrzej Duda that the United States was "considering" an establishment of a military base in Poland.

"The Poles live in an illusion, which has several times led them to positions detrimental to their nation… We must tell our Polish friends that this is enough and that Europe is not there to stir up conflicts and settle their past resentments or, even more seriously, their hatred of Russians," Schaffhauser said.

Under Secretary Shannon Accepts Montenegro’s Instrument of Accession to NATO From Montenegro’s Foreign Minister Darmanovi?

The newest member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) alliance is Montenegro and the tiny nation is wasting no time getting involved in showing its support for collective defense.

Montenegro also plans to join the NATO battle group deployed in Latvia, General James Everard, Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe, told journalists in Riga.

On Tuesday, during a meeting between Polish President Andrzej Duda and President Donald Trump, Duda said Poland was willing to provide $2 billion for a separate, permanent U.S. base in Poland, which he offered to call “Fort Trump."

“We’re looking at it. We’re looking at it from the standpoint of, No. 1, military protection for both countries, and also cost,” Trump said. “That’s the way it has to be.”

Hungary’s Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto has accused the UN human rights watchdog of “spreading lies” about his country, saying that immigration was not a “fundamental human right.”

The official took aim at the “independent experts” with the UN Human Rights Council, stating they “should not be independent from the truth.”

“Recently, unfortunately, some UN officials started to spread lies against and about my country,” Szijjarto told the UN body’s meeting on Wednesday.

The Swedish Migration Court has overturned a 2015 decision, granting permanent residency to an Afghan migrant murderer, Aftonbladet reports.

The 25-year-old man had a dispute over land and money in Afghanistan with his cousin. He killed him with a rock.

He then fled to Iran where he lived with his family, but out of fear his relatives would take revenge, he decided to flee the country with his wife and two children.

DAVID Davis will accuse Theresa May of being “devoid of democracy” in his most blistering attack on her Chequers plan yet.

Speaking in Munich,he will say the Prime Minister is a bigger menace to voters than Brussels by trying to railroad her compromise plan through the Cabinet and Commons.

Heads of state and government of the 28 EU states will not adopt new sanctions against Russia over Russia’s alleged involvement in poisoning of the former Russian military intelligence officer Sergey Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury, a source in the EU Council told TASS.

"Introduction of new restrictions at the summit is not expected. At the moment no additional sanctions against Russia are planned," the source said.

European airports have warned Brussels they face ‘major disruption and heightened safety risks’ if a Brexit deal is not agreed.

More than 6 million passengers a year who change flights in Europe after setting off from the UK face extra security and screening if the country is excluded from an EU scheme.

At present, travellers do not have to undergo extra checks before embarking on the second leg of the journey because the UK is part of the ‘one-stop’ security regime.

Airports Council International (Europe) has warned the European Commission that under a ‘no deal’ scenario, passengers would have to be re-screened at the airport where they change flights.

Swedish police received more than 2,300 reports of potential crimes linked to this year's election, including voter intimidation and threats of violence against property or persons. An international team of observers found irregularities in 46% of the polling stations visited. The team expressed particular concern over the lack of secrecy in voting. Swedish authorities allow more than one voter (normally from the same family) to enter the polling booth together, ostensibly to ensure that the more literate family member can assist the less literate ones to correctly fill in the ballot paper.

"We are concerned about the significant level of family voting where women, older voters and the infirm can be guided or even instructed how to vote by another family member... We feel this may be a way of suppressing some voters from freely choosing their own choice." - Statement on the Swedish election from Democracy Volunteers,election observers.

ANGELA Merkel was quoted as saying “the UK must suffer a little bit” in the Brexit negotiations, the same day Theresa May warned MPs that if her Chequers proposal is not supported in the House of Commons the UK will face a "no deal" Brexit.

Visiting the White House on Tuesday, Polish President Andrzej Duda reiterated Poland’s offer to pay $2 billion to the US if President Trump establishes a permanent military base inside Poland. Duda argues it is needed as a bulwark against Russia.

This is not a new offer, though Duda’s visit gives it a lot more attention. Polish Defense Ministry officials announced the offer back in May, saying they want a US armored division and are willing to defray some of the construction costs of the base.

In reality, the cost putting a US armored base in Poland on a permanent basis is going to be several hundred million dollars per year, and while Poland’s cash may make the initial move into the country cheaper, it will quickly be another costly mission for the US with no end in sight.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is reviled as an enemy of the West in general, and of the EU in particular, and yet Hungarian Prime Minister Orban continues to conduct “business as usual” with the master of the Kremlin.

The “salon des refusés” of political dissidents in the EU is getting bigger by the day. Less than a week after his government was condemned in a vote in the European parliament, Orban is in Moscow for talks about energy with Putin. His visit to Russia is the political equivalent of giving the EU the finger following last week’s humiliation.

The Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has asked Russia to extend the Turkish Stream natural gas pipeline to his country and further into Europe.
Orban, who is on a visit to Moscow, broached this potential project during a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday. "It's no secret that Hungary wants the pipeline that's being built near the south of the country, to go through Hungary,” Orban said. The countries have also agreed a gas delivery service from Russia to Hungary for 2020.

CNN recently discovered a paradox. How was it possible, they asked, that in 1989, Viktor Orban, at the time a Western-acclaimed liberal opposition leader, was calling for Soviet troops to leave Hungary, and now that he is Prime Minister, he is cozying up to Vladimir Putin?

For the same reason, dummy.

Orban wanted his country to be independent then, and he wants it to be independent now.

In 1989, Hungary was a satellite of the Soviet Union. Whatever Hungarians wanted, they had to follow directives from Moscow and adhere to Soviet communist ideology.

Today, Hungary is ordered to follow directives from Brussels and adhere to the EU ideology, a k a “our common values”.

Switzerland’s financial supervisor FINMA says one of the country’s largest banks, Credit Suisse, failed to properly oversee its anti-money laundering procedures for FIFA, as well as Brazil’s and Venezuela’s state oil companies.
According to the regulator, the banking multinational showed serious “deficiencies” in its attempts to counter illegal financial activities when dealing with soccer’s ruling body FIFA, Brazilian oil corporation Petrobras, and Venezuela's state energy company PDVSA.

“To combat money laundering effectively, every relevant department within the bank must be able to see all the client's relationships with the bank instantly and automatically,” FINMA said, adding that some progress had been made so far.

The US president has criticized European nations, specifically Germany, for continuing to buy Russian natural gas and supporting the construction of the Nord Stream-2 pipeline. Trump suggested that the EU should buy liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the US, despite it being more expensive.

Germany is unlikely to buy the LNG that Washington has offered it as an alternative to Russian gas as Berlin doesn't need it, the German business newspaper Handelsblatt wrote on September 13. The newspaper wrote that the only reason that the German chancellor would be interested in US LNG would be to appease US President Donald Trump ahead of crucial trade talks between the US and the EU.

President Vladimir Putin has praised Finland’s security policy for providing the “optimum model for guaranteed and sustainable good relations for nonaligned countries.”

Finnish President Sauli Niinisto does not consider Russia a threat. In an interview with Frankfurter Allgemeine, he said that Russia has no reason whatsoever to attack Finland, that’s why he has no desire to join NATO.

“I don’t think Russia will invade the Baltic States. Neither has it any intention to attack Finland,” Niinisto noted.

The new article published in the Swiss newspaper Tages-Anzeiger with allegations against Russian diplomats again lacks facts, just as it was with its previous two publications about Russians, the Russian Embassy in Switzerland said Sunday.

"We regret to note that groundless and unsubstantiated attacks against Russia continue to emerge from the tireless Swiss journalists from Tages Anzeiger. As with the two previous publications by the authors, the Sunday article on Russian diplomats in Switzerland is characterized by the absence of any facts, as well references to secret documents that no one saw and probably no one wrote," the Russian diplomatic mission in Bern said in a statement on Facebook.

Such publications undermine Russian-Swiss relations, the embassy noted.

The big stumbling block with EU companies continuing to trade with Iran is financing. US threats to punish companies involved in such trade have scared away a lot of banks, despite EU assurances that they will protect companies.

This clearing house would aim to avoid banks, and money changing hands across borders, entirely. One European company could pay the clearing house for imported Iranian oil, and the clearing house would give that money to another EU company providing goods or services to Iran.

While the US theoretically wants to sanction all trade with Iran, particularly oil imports, they have limited options to punish a European company whose business is to buy Iranian oil, or European industrial firms with projects inside Iran.

Change is coming, Charles Ortel, a Wall Street analyst, told Sputnik, commenting on the growing discontent with Brussels policies among Europeans and the increasing popularity of nationalist conservative parties. According to the analyst, the EU's swollen bureaucratic apparatus remains a stumbling block in the way of Europe's development.

The European Union has broken its commitment to cease funding firms based in Israel’s illegal settlements.

Five years ago, the EU issued a policy paper stating that Israeli companies were not eligible to draw down subsidies if they had been set up in the occupied West Bank.

One such company, the cosmetics maker Ahava, has nonetheless managed to participate in Horizon 2020, the Union’s latest program for scientific research. It is benefitting from a $4.5 million EU-funded scheme on using nanotechnology to develop new skin care products.

Ahava is headquartered in the settlement of Mitzpe Shalem. Like all Israel’s settlements in the West Bank, Mitzpe Shalem has been constructed in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention.

There can be no doubt that Ahava is based there.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) today ruled that the UK’s mass interception programmes breached the Article 8 right to privacy enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights.

Four political parties are pushing forward laws that could prohibit the pro-sharia Partij Islam ahead of Belgium’s upcoming municipal elections.

The Independent Federal Democrat Party (DEFI), the right-wing Reform Movement (MR), the Humanist Democratic Centre (CDH), and the Socialist Party (PS) have announced a proposal to ban parties “whose aim is to threaten public liberties”, which may include the Islamist party, Le Point reports.

The party gained notoriety earlier this year after its founder, Anderlecht municipal councillor Redouane Ahrouch, declared: “Our goal is a one hundred percent Islamic state.”

Hungary has received the backing of its anti-mass migration allies in Poland and the Czech Republic following a vote of censure in the European Parliament, which the Central European country’s foreign minister has denounced as “petty revenge”.

“Today’s [European Parliament] decision is the petty revenge of pro-migration politicians,” declared Péter Szijjártó.

The Hungarian suggested that the EU establishment was seeking to make an example of Hungary, which was subject to an Article 7 vote, which could see the country stripped of its voting rights.

This is because Viktor Orbán’s government “proved that there is no need for migration and migration can be stopped” and this angered pro-migration politicians, in Szijjártó’s estimation.

The EU’s top economic official has voiced fears that “little Mussolinis” might be emerging in Europe, drawing a furious response from Italy’s far-right interior minister who accused him of insulting his country and Italians.

Pierre Moscovici, a Frenchman who is the European Union’s economics affairs commissioner, said the current political situation, with populist, far-right forces on the rise in many nations, resembled the 1930s when Germany’s Adolf Hitler and Italian fascist chief Benito Mussolini were in power.

The advisory also warns military activities linked to the bloody conflict in Syria have been ramped across Iran's airspace.

Tensions between Tehran and Washington are running high following Donald Trump’s controversial decision to pull out of the landmark Iran nuclear deal re-introduce economic sanctions last month.

Flight Service Bureau, which provides safety information on airspace to airlines, said "without seeming alarmist", the deteriorating relationship between the US and Iran must be taken into account when planning flights in Iran's airspace.

The possibility of a Turkish naval base on Cyprus does not bode well for the chances of a Cyprus reunification deal, particularly after the breakdown of the July 2017 peace talks, which were suspended when "Turkey had refused to relinquish its intervention rights on Cyprus or the presence of troops on the island."

Turkey has 30,000 soldiers stationed on Cyprus, the northern part of which it has illegally occupied since 1974.

"If Greek-Turkish tensions escalate, the possibility of another ill-timed military provocation could escalate with them... Moreover, such a conflict might open up an even greater opportunity for Russian interference." - Lawrence A. Franklin.

ITALIAN MEP Mario Borghezio gave his support to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban as MEPs voted to trigger the Article 7 process against Hungary – threatening to strip the country of its voting rights.