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Eight more countries join Instex to trade with Iran, circumvent sanctions


RT
Mon, 30 Sep 2019 18:30 UTC
mogherini,zarif,johnson
© Reuters/pool
Eight EU countries have joined INSTEX, the mechanism set up to trade with Iran while circumventing US sanctions, and another two are set to follow, according to an aide to EU High Representative Federica Mogherini. Nathalie Tocci, on Monday on the sidelines of the Valdai Club meeting in Sochi, stated:
"Apart from the three countries that initiated the creation of the mechanism - France, Germany and Great Britain - eight more EU member states have decided to join. Two more countries are expected to follow in their footsteps."
While Tocci did not mention which countries were joining the exchange, Sweden and Belgium have both said they plan to join, and membership was opened up to all EU countries in June, five months after the exchange's creation.

Earlier this month, senior Iranian lawmaker Mucteba Zunnur said the EU had promised to contribute $15 billion to INSTEX - and promised in return to resume compliance with the JCPOA nuclear deal if the money was received before the end of the year. The EU had no official response to his claim.

Comment: Iran has had to push the pedal to the metal to get Europe to respond to its requirements. Trump has forced this hand. Will this deal secure Iran? Will it solidify and increase Iranian support? Will it sway Iran's current course to increase uranium enrichment and production?

See also:

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Oil Well

Saudi Crown Prince warns oil prices will skyrocket if Iran isn't "dealt with firmly"

Irina Slav
Oilprice.com
Mon, 30 Sep 2019 06:00 UTC
MbS/Oilfacility
© Ya Libnan/Hani Amara
Prince Mohammed bin Salman
Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBC) has told CBS that oil could reach "unimaginably high numbers" if a war with Iran were to erupt, which he suggested could happen if "the world does not take a strong and firm action to deter Iran."

And while MBS is known to engage in hyperbole when it comes to the threat Iran poses, recent events suggest he may have a point here. But what are these unimaginably high numbers he is suggesting? $100 per barrel? $300 per barrel? And what would the world look like if prices really went that high?

The recent drone attacks on Saudi Aramco's oil facilities, which took 5.7 million bpd offline, have been largely attributed to Iran - even if the Houthis have claimed responsibility for them. This attack was evidence that Iran does have the means to strike at the heart of Saudi oil structure and, in an all-out war, it is reasonable to suggest a strike on those facilities could be far more devastating. In that scenario, those 5.7 million bpd could be taken offline permanently - leaving the global oil industry in a very precarious position.


Comment: Deterring Iran would be a long-term, full time job and a drain of resources without satisfactory conclusion. It is equal folly to believe the West will come to grips and achieve a pacific stasis if it continues on its present course of belligerence, economic chaos and threats of outright war. Simply put, there is more to lose than gain.

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Light Sabers

Battle over Hong Kong: A new silk road or a NWO?

Matthew Ehret
Strategic Culture Foundation
Sat, 28 Sep 2019 00:00 UTC
Belt&Road
© houston.china-consulate.org
China's One Belt One Road Initiative
To the chagrin of those authors of color revolutions who have invested so much time and energy in their attempts to undermine national sovereignty as seen in Hong Kong today, not only have their plans to overthrow Bashar al Assad, and President Maduro failed, but even their simpler objectives to foment separatist movements among ethnic minorities in China (such as the Uyghurs and Tibetan Buddhists) collapsed miserably. The reason for this failure is simple.

China has allied with a growing array of nations to create a comprehensive international program operating on every imaginable level of human activity which is essentially... creative.

Take the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) as an example. This program has evolved in its six years of existence from an idea which most establishment hacks wrote off as wildly utopian, to becoming the primary force for world development today. Rather than being a crystalized, defined idea, the BRI is flexible and open to change which frustrates insecure technocrats due to the fact that it is not susceptible to formulas while its effects increase the hope and optimism of all effected [sic affected] by demonstrating not only that peoples' lives can improve, but that the government which effects such improvement may not be worth hating and fearing as these minorities are told they should.
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Whistle

Did the IG's office assist the 'whistleblower's attempt to frame Trump?

Margot Cleveland
The Federalist
Mon, 30 Sep 2019 00:00 UTC
Whistle and shadows
© Unknown
The 'whistleblower' was not acting alone, and members of the intelligence community inspector general's office were likely providing an assist in the hoax attempt to bury President Trump.

After President Donald Trump released the transcript of his July 25, 2019, telephone conversation with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, the left's "whistleblower" plot began to crumble. No, Trump didn't condition foreign subsidies on Ukraine investigating Hunter Biden, son of the former vice president and presidential candidate Joe Biden. And no, Trump didn't raise the question some eight times.

Then came the declassification of the "whistleblower's" actual complaint against the president, which made clear the still-unnamed intelligence officer was peddling nothing but gossip and hearsay, seasoned with several factual falsehoods. This further exposed the Ukraine Purse Strings Hoax as the Resistance's sequel to the failed Russia collusion hoax.

To fully grasp the depths of the deception and duplicity, however, requires a familiarity with the governing whistleblower laws. Once those laws are understood, the latest attempt by the Deep State to take down our duly elected president becomes even more obvious. It also becomes clear that the "whistleblower" was not acting alone, and members of the intelligence community inspector general's office were likely providing an assist in the attempt to bury Trump. So here's your lawsplainer:
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Propaganda

Another nothing-gate? Aussie PM undercuts MSM's narrative on Trump 'pressure' phone call


RT
Tue, 01 Oct 2019 00:38 UTC
TrumpTimes
© Reuters/Erin Scott/AFP/Alastair Pike
US President Donald Trump • New York Times
US President Donald Trump has again come under a media barrage after reports that he "pressed" Australia's prime minister to assist in an investigation into the origins of Russiagate, which Canberra disputes.

In a report on Monday, the New York Times said the president "pushed" Austrialian Prime Minister Scott Morrison into cooperating with a Department of Justice (DOJ) probe tasked with looking into the origins of the 'Russiagate' investigation. While the Times itself acknowledges there was nothing "illegal [or] untoward" about the president's request, the story posits similarities to Trump's July call with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky, the fallout of which has transformed into a full-blown impeachment showdown in Washington.
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Megaphone

Impeachment-hungry #Resistance media applaud Bolton's Trump bashing, embellish his commentary


RT
Mon, 30 Sep 2019 19:50 UTC
John Bolton
© Reuters/Peter Nicholls
John Bolton
Uber-hawk ex-US national security advisor John Bolton's first public appearance after being fired by the White House saw him slam Trump's North Korea policy, call for regime change - and be embraced by the mainstream media.

Proving there is no former White House official too unpleasant for the anti-Trump #Resistance media to embrace, Bolton's reputational rehabilitation was evident in the headlines heralding his return to private-sector warmongering after he spoke at the Center for Strategic and International Studies on Monday. The no longer unemployed belligerent excoriated President Donald Trump for "seeking a middle ground" on North Korea and insisted Kim Jong-un couldn't be trusted, claiming regime change and military force were the only possible ways forward.

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X

DOJ Horowitz finds nothing much to see on the Clinton-Lynch tarmac incident, but did he look?

Paul Sperry
RealClear Investigations
Mon, 30 Sep 2019 00:00 UTC
LynchClinton
© AP/Mike Segar/Reuters
Former AG Loreta Lynch • Former US president Bill Clinton
Former investigators who fear Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz will pull punches in his upcoming report on alleged FBI abuses point to his inquiry into the so-called tarmac meeting between former President Bill Clinton and then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch in 2016.

They say it illustrates his unwillingness to use his broad powers to uncover information that could be damaging to top officials.

The Clinton-Lynch tête-à-tête took place on the attorney general's government plane, parked on a Phoenix airport tarmac, just a week before Hillary Clinton was scheduled to be interviewed by the FBI regarding her private email server.

Lynch and Clinton told Horowitz's investigators that their June 27, 2016, meeting was "unplanned," and they denied that Hillary and her investigation — or even her presidential campaign — came up in their conversation, which lasted about a half-hour. They swore they chatted mainly about their grandchildren and golf.

The then nearly 70-year-old Clinton, who claimed he flew to Phoenix to play golf - on a summer day when the mercury hit a blistering 111 degrees - said he had no idea Lynch would be on the tarmac at the same time he was.

Comment: See also:

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Arrow Up

Democratic establishment puppet MoveOn to embrace 'whistleblowers', but only the 'safe' kind


RT
Mon, 30 Sep 2019 23:26 UTC
Woman/whistleblowers
© Reuters/Yuri Gripas
A protester outside Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia, September 21, 2019.
MoveOn, a major advocacy group fine-tuned to the needs of Democratic Party, has finally found a whistleblower it can support - the CIA agent whose complaint triggered an impeachment inquiry against US President Donald Trump.

MoveOn, which describes itself as the largest independent progressive advocacy group in the US, hailed the still-anonymous whistleblower for taking on "great personal risk to defend our democracy" by revealing Trump's call with Ukraine that this person only knew of second-hand.

The organization, sponsored by many Democratic donors including billionaire George Soros, implored its millions of members to "have the whistleblower's back" with donations and petition signatures. MoveOn has even partnered with Whistleblower Aid - a group that steadfastly opposes the release of classified information, equating such leaks with criminality - and thus foisted a warped definition of whistleblowing on its massive audience, one which permits only "safe" disclosures unlikely to ruffle establishment feathers.

Comment: See also:

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Arrow Down

Dublin slams Johnson's leaked Brexit plan for Ireland's border


RT
Tue, 01 Oct 2019 11:13 UTC
Johnson/Varadkar
© Reuters/Phil Noble
Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson meets with Ireland's Prime Minister (Taoiseach) Leo Varadkar in Dublin.
Boris Johnson's leaked Brexit proposals to solve the contentious Irish backstop issue have been rejected out of hand by the Republic of Ireland, as the British PM insists the UK will make an official offer to the EU very soon.

Irish broadcaster RTE reported on Monday night that it had received leaked 'non-papers' (background proposals) from the UK officials to solve the intractable Brexit crisis.

RTE's Europe editor, Tony Connelly, claimed on social media that Brexit plans included a number of "customs clearance centres" that would be located 5-10 miles back from the Irish border. He tweeted that the "centres" would effectively be customs posts and operate on either side of the border.
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Bulb

Peruvian President Vizcarra dissolves entire congress for blocking anti-corruption reforms

Greg Norman
Fox News
Tue, 01 Oct 2019 18:36 UTC
Vizcarra
© AP/Peruvian presidential press office
Peru's President Martin Vizcarra delivers a national message from the government palace in Lima, Peru, on Monday.
Peru's government is in the midst of a political crisis Tuesday after its president dissolved the country's congress for failing to support his anti-corruption reforms - only for lawmakers to respond by suspending him from office and appointing his vice president as their new leader.

President Martín Vizcarra's actions against the opposition-controlled congress were met with cheers early Tuesday morning by thousands of people who took to the streets of its capital, Lima, waving Peruvian flags, chanting and carrying signs with phrases like "Get out, corrupt politicians!"

Others tried to force their way into the legislature to get lawmakers out, but were driven back by police with tear gas.
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