Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is working to get closer to countries in Central and Eastern Europe. In so doing the Israeli prime minister is seeking to form a pro-Israel alternative to the European Union, which includes countries that traditionally supported Israel but criticized its settlement policy in Palestinian occupied territories.

Netanyahu officially launched his plan a year ago, last July, when he was speaking at a meeting in Budapest, which included the Prime Ministers of Hungary, Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia. At the time, it was not clear whether it was intended or deliberate that the microphone remained open in the presence of journalists before cutting it off, according to a report published by Haaretz on Sunday.

Netanyahu told the leaders of the four countries meeting in Budapest that,

"In order to provide Israel with technology, the European Union is the only international organization that requires political considerations. We have special relations with China apart from the interference of any political issue. Indian Prime Minister, Narendura, told me that the interests of India are top priority to him. Also, Russia and Africa do not set any political conditions, only the EU does. This is irrational and contradicts the European interests".

The United States may consider granting relief to some countries from economic sanctions that will be imposed on Iran's oil exports in November, US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo said on Tuesday.

"There will be a handful of countries that come to the United States and ask for relief from that. We'll consider it," Pompeo told Sky News Arabia.

At the same time, the top US diplomat warned against misinterpreting such an approach.

"Make no mistake about it, we are determined to convince the Iranian leadership that this malign behavior will not be rewarded and that the economic situation in their country will not be permitted to be rectified until such time as they become a more normal nation," he said.

Any oil deals with Iran will violate US sanctions on Tehran when they come into force on November 4, Pompeo explained.

US Department of State Director of Policy Planning Brian Hook said last week Washington is prepared to work with nations that are decreasing oil imports from Iran by case basis.

US President has undoubtedly challenged America's allies with his latest moves, including an ongoing trade war. As the NATO summit kicked off, Trump joked that the only one who really likes him in the bloc now is its chief.

"Because of me they've [NATO] raised about $40 billion over the last year," the US leader told journalists standing next to NATO Secretary General. "So I think the Secretary General likes Trump. He may be the only one but that's OK with me."

However, the NATO chief did not follow Trump's playful tone and continued to talk business, saying that the alliance member's defense spending is the main issue to be discussed. Washington has been stressing that it pays "too much" to the NATO budget, while others fail to follow suit. "This has been going on for decades. It's disproportionate and not fair to the taxpayers of the United States," Trump said, adding that he is eager to change the situation.

During the morning meeting with Stoltenberg, Trump also lambasted defense bloc allies and Germany in particular for giving billions of dollars to Russia, a country the members "should be defended against." He went as far as to call Germany "captive of Russia" because its alleged dependency on Russian gas supplies.

Iran is facing growing external pressure from its adversaries, who are seeking to sow dissent in the country and pit the people against the government, Iran's' Defense Minister has said, adding that they won't succeed in doing so.

"Today, the flimsy coalition of the arrogant, reactionary and hypocritical [countries] led by the US is seeking to portray the Islamic Republic of Iran's situation as critical," Iran's Defense Minister, Brigadier General Amir Hatami, said on Tuesday.

Iran has sustained increasing "pressure [from] outside the country with the aim of igniting protests inside," the official added, adding that the country's adversaries are seeking to drive a wedge between government and the people.

They would not succeed in doing so, however, since, Iran endured decades of external pressure and it's stronger and more unified than before. The country also enjoys reliable and "active deterrent power,"which allows it to effectively counter external threats, Hatami stated.

Russia and China are rigorously improving strategic ties to be better prepared for the challenges of today's world, as the US resorts to deception, hybrid wars, and controlled chaos, the Russian defense minister said.

In a frank interview with Italian magazine Il Giornale, Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu explained Russia's strategy of keeping friends and deterring foes, and explained why Moscow has every reason to remain vigilant towards the US and its allies.

Russia & China: Strength through friendship

In an interview with Il Giornale newspaper, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu commented on the issues of US strategy in Iraq and Libya, the US violating the INF Treaty, Russia-US relations, the Ukrainian crisis and war in Syria.

The United States is violating the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF Treaty) by deploying in Europe missile defense system, whose launchers might be used for firing Tomahawk cruise missiles at the European part of Russia's territory, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said in an interview released on Wednesday.

"We have repeatedly and publicly made it clear in all major international fora that it is the United States that is directly violating the INF Treaty, having installed, during the deployment of a missile shield in Europe, its MK-41 vertical launching systems, which might be used for the launch of Tomahawk cruise missiles. The destructive radius of these missiles covers almost all the European part of Russia's territory," Shoigu told Italy's Il Giornale newspaper.

Shoigu added that, at the same time, it was Russia that was accused of alleged violations of the treaty.

According to the Metropolitan Police investigation into the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal, here is a timeline of events on 4th March:

• 13:40: Sergei and Yulia arrived at the Sainsbury's upper level car park in The Maltings. The pair go to The Mill pub.
• Approximately 14:20: They eat at Zizzi restaurant on Castle Street
• 15:35: They leave the restaurant
• 16:15: Emergency services are called by a member of the public to the bench where Sergei and Yulia are slumped on a bench

So: car park, pub, restaurant, bench. Simples? Not so, as we shall see.

On 28th March, an article appeared in the Sun, which talked about a 12-year-old boy from Salisbury, Aiden Cooper, who was apparently in a park with his parents, when he saw the Skripals and went over to them to feed the ducks:

"A schoolboy told yesterday how he was caught up in the poison spy drama after assassination target Sergei Skripal gave him bread to feed ducks. Aiden Cooper, 12, was playing in a park with pals when they saw Skripal and daughter Yulia beside a stream. They were handed bread and are among the last people to have had contact with the retired ­Russian military intellig­ence colonel, now fighting for his life."

Of course, I would always want to have a large bucket of salt on standby when reading anything in The Sun, but in this case I see no reason why they, or the people quoted in the article, would make this up. In any case, the story was repeated in a number of other outlets (The Mirror, The Mail and Metro for instance), and it mentions that the parents only found out about the identity of the breadman when they were contacted by police.

The US-led coalition's military intervention in Syria is under increasing levels of scrutiny, with critics arguing that the coalition has no mandate to conduct military operations in the Arab Republic as it doesn't have Damascus' approval to do so.

A committee of the German Bundestag headed by Die Linke politician Alexander Neu found Russia's military presence in Syria to be "considered permissible in international law" as the Syrian government requested assistance from Moscow, the ARD public broadcaster's Tagesschau news service reported on Tuesday.

Specifically, Mr. Neu noted that Russian forces are operating in Syria with "explicit approval from the Syrian government."

The committee described the US-led coalition's ongoing role in the Syria crisis as more complicated, noting that supplying arms to militants in the country was a potential breach of international law.

Furthermore, they said that intervening in Syria to fight Daesh and other terrorist groups is legal, but only if Syria is "unable or unwilling" to do so itself.

Several contacts have been sending me an article that appeared in The New Yorker yesterday, titled "The Maps of Israeli Settlements That Shocked Barack Obama", by Adam Entous.

The article features a map, here headlined "West Bank - What a One State Reality Looks Like", where the archipelago of Palestinian controlled/partially controlled areas (A and B) are 'bathed' inside the surrounding and disconnecting Israeli Area C (about 60% of West Bank), where Area C has the same color as Israel (blue). Thus, one can clearly see the disconnect of Palestinian Bantustans (Gaza is also seen as a separate enclave).

Donald Trump continued his round of criticism for the aging North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) as he prepared for an upcoming trip to Europe that will culminate in a July 16th summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The New York Times noted that this critique was not met with the most appreciation:

Mr. Trump's comments touched off a round of trans-Atlantic sniping with Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council, that was sure to start the NATO meeting on a tense note.

"The U.S. is spending many times more than any other country in order to protect them," Mr. Trump said on Twitter of the other members of the Atlantic alliance, hours before Air Force One left for Belgium. "Not fair to the U.S. taxpayer."

He complained anew about trade deficits with the European Union, and seemed to threaten to cut American military spending in a bid to compel other NATO members to increase theirs.

The complaints reflected the degree to which Mr. Trump is coming into the summit meeting focused on his anger with NATO and his conviction that the alliance exploits American largess to the detriment of the United States. That is a stark departure from previous American presidents of both parties, who have tended to regard the alliance as an invaluable force for collective defense that reflects shared values among its members.

Mr. Trump's remarks exacerbated concerns that he may torpedo the meeting that begins on Wednesday, and with it, the alliance's efforts to show unity and solidarity in the face of global threats, including from Russia.