Iranian tankers fly Tuvalu flags and other tax haven countries flags. Sanctions are not effective.

It'll be compensated before you know it. Besides, when there's oil, there will always be people who will buy.

Is that behind the scenes it would appear that the Regime has resigned itself to closing the Hormuz as a lever and bargaining tool to break sanctions When?...More and more indications are sooner rather than later..perhaps as early as August 2012

The tankers and embargo don't matter. The day Iran gets nukes is the day the Saudi leadership flees to London and the American people curse the day they elected Arab-firster Obama.

If Ahmadinutjob and his Mad Mullahs are stupid enough to close the Strait of Hormuz, they are toast. It's as simple as this.

Iranians like us are saVvy traders. My question is: Why your hatred for the Israelis? Why not be our friends? Why is your wish to destroy us? These are questions I want answered by you. Thank you.

iran will be finished very soon !

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Any assertions that the sanctions are failing, evaporated after this report in the NY Times. $10 billion dollars is an enormous amount of money, regardless of the foolish comment from "Arash". And, the cost of using dozens of tankers as warehouses, well it just brings a smile to my face! Trading with Iran is bad business now (great). Banks won't work with them. Insurance for tankers, won't sell to them (fabulous). In simple terms, success. Just wait till the finger pointing starts (probably has), and dissent mounts (soon). Like a cancer, Iran will eat itself from the inside out. It is a great day, for everyone!

it could just be planted articles by the white house or any other entity (even the leftist, israel bashing NYT themselves) that does not want to see an attack on iran. the same type of BS sham that the 5+1 negotiators are dragging out with iran with no progress or end in sight.

If Iran drop their prices below the world price, sanctions or not, countries will buy it. Also, if they drop the price enough and gain customers they could cause alot of problems for the corporations and slash the corporate profits. Iran can collapse the oil price and destroy any economy ifit wants, lets just hope they close the strait.

Last i heard your government can't even handle the lack of jobs and the situations getting worse by the day... Talk about nations being finished..LOL

Economist YOU AINT... Your short anaylsis is so full of holes and flaws... Perhaps you can get some gainful employment in Teheran?

You have to ask Obama Iran is mostly self-sufficient in food items, only few imported items like cars, gadgets etc are affected. Also has over $100 billion in cash reserves in tax-havens & gold bullion, which is enough for few years. A total naval & land blockade may have been more effective, but not such eye-wash sanctions. And since many countries eg. India, China are co-operating with Iran in thwarting the sanctions, they are clearly not effective.

For everyone's benefit, its ISRAEL thats being fooled. There is a huge nexus that has formed between Obama, Europe, IAEA & Iran under the leadership of crafty Ashton to create an illusion that the problem is being solved to prevent an Israeli attack. All of them benefit if there is no war while Israel alone loses when Iran gets the bomb. Netanyahu is one of the few who can see through this plot (even Barak seems to have been taken in) but whether he has the guts to act alone is the question.

Given Iran's dwindling foreign currency reserves, and the fact that Iranian vessels cannot acquire insurance and thus cannot discharge cargo in any port of any country, I'd say you'd better hitch your wagon to a very different star. Iran is toast. You cannot even sell your pistachio nuts anywhere, let alone petroleum!

The REALITY is all oil can be sold, no matter how much the US does not want it to be sold. If those ships have oil on them, they will quietly sneak into some port and off-load the oil for a discounted price. Brent crude price benchmark is US$100/bbl right now (and rising BTW), so there are plenty of buyers willing to pay in Euros or whatever the equivalent of US$85/bbl and turn around and sell it to Europe for a nice US$15/bbl profit.Heck, it is not that hard for a non-embargo ship to meet up with an Iranian ship and transfer the oil on the high seas and "magically" the oil in the non-embargo ship becomes "Iraqi" oil. There are more ways to re-brand Iranian oil than there are people in Israel. Smuggling and embargo busting are thousands of years old. This is just BS from NY Times.

We are witnessing history: one oil producing country singled out and punished... and yet oil prices keep falling!!! to the ones who reduced USA and Europe roll in the world: why everyone, all these proud countries like India, Turkey, etc, are begging very humbly to be "allowed" by the USA to keep importing oil.. i want to see Iran in the long term.. i sit and watch the fall and humiliation of the ayatollahs without one single shot being shot yet

And can people stop calling it as the persian gulf? It is called Yazid Gulf.

That would hasten the end that bearded monkey and his masters regime. Remember ayatollah baby. They cant even beat Iraq. You think they can beat USA, EU, NATO, GCC and the mujahideen from Saudi ?

...is that there all these tankers floating aimlessly... ...is that 2 tankers in the act of transferring oil are 'magically' visible from Space. Your theory only holds water if all this ME sabre rattling is one giant conspiracy between all the major governments involved..including the USA, Russia and China.

As the ILLEGAL regime in tehran,Floating Aimlessly through life!!!! The little bearded monkey and His supremeless lead no where ARE TO BLAME,for they Are The Despot,PARIAH'S A Canerous Tumor To The Body Of The WORLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And the best part of it all is that the Iranian oil fleet is presently turning into a financial liability of epic proportions. Keeping these puppy's afloat is said to be a rather expensive enterprise. But I am sure the esteemed Ayatollah with his side-kick Ahmadinnejad will waste no time in ensuring the world that the Isramic Republic of Iran is thriving as before, rendering themselves quite ridiculous. Again. It would be highly amusing if it wasn't such a tragedy. Well, okay, it is amusing, just a little.

Those puppies may stay afloat, but the coatings on the inside of the tankers has compromised the quality of the petroleum and the Iranians cannot even sink the tankers. Well -- they can, but the criminal liabilities for pollution will be astounding and the loss of so many extraordinarily UNINSURED vessels -- well, frankly, the Iranians cannot afford it. It is beyond amusing. It is RICHLY amusing! Couldn't happen to a nicer, or more deserving, bunch of slugs.

buying Iranian oil is a major hassle and not worthwhile for nations to pursue. India couldn't even get hard currency for its rice shipments to Iran, and you think payments for oil will be easier? $10B is $10B - it's a big deal. Watch how quickly they piss away $150B in reserves. One thing for sure, once this debacle ends after Tehran caves, the price of oil will drop quickly with the surplus, throwing markets into a spin, and pissing off OPEC even more. Though I see it as divine justice, myself.

will admit to. They are basically bored of being ignored. They never see themselves as being a real trading power in international arenas so they resort to an excuse to show off and chest pound. The Idea is to keep people busy fighting so they will not ask for more freedom from their government. Any extreme group form any religion will do the same once the power is given. Christianity put an off switch on it by creating the pope and the Vatican. Religious can go there and rule all they want. Muslims need to do the same, but they are just too fanatic in that sense.

playing leggo. Come on! It was funny though!