Obama's much trumpeted sanctions against Iran have failed miserably ! Countries like India, Turkey, China, Pakistan are all actively helping Iran easily bypass the half-hearted sanctions efforts. Successful use of barter system, routing payment thru tax-havens, smuggling oil & goods across border etc....all effectively nullifying the weak sanctions attempts. Obama is a liar & wimp, only interested in his re-election. Only fools believe him. Sanctions EPIC FAIL !

You have to ask Obama whats the use of "10% sanctions with waivers" ? 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 are co-operating with Iran in thwarting the sanctions, they are clearly not effective. Btw, please ask Obama to show his Birth Certificate first & deport his illegal immigrant aunt residing in New York first....ha ha ha ha !

Biased report to prevent an Israeli strike. Iran is actually accelerating nuke and missile work. Sanctions did not work on N.Korea. The are starving & eat grass but still have the bomb. The Ayotllahs are far more fanatical & determined than N.Korea, so how will sanctions ever stop them ??? Quite ludicrous !

The timing of this report is intersting. What it really says is: "Israel, don't do anything concerning Iran during the Olympics, nor until after US elections." In the mean time, the window of security options for the state of Israel is rapidly closing. And they don't care.

Iran reflagging tankers and evading sanctions ! Out of a fleet of 39 Iranian oil tankers, 15 now fly the Tuvaluan flag. In recent weeks, the National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC) has changed the names and flags of its fleet to avoid sanctions by the EU.

Iran has been experimenting with by launching from cargo ships? They're intended to launch from cargo ships 300 miles off shore.

I am sure your leaders have tried every "trick" to prop up your failing economy. T assert that sanctions are failing is fools talk. You, your people, your leaders, and your country, are an international pariah. However, if as you say sanctions are failing, then another course of action will result. Namely, dropping bombs on your head. I gather, you prefer this.

That would make those cargo vessels legitimate military targets, wouldn't it?

You mean like before or after the missiles have been launched?

allowed in to verify this ? And missiles are not the same as nuclear enrichment and A bomb production. Another "buy time" episode.

ILLEGAL regime in tehran IS BLUE in the face and GASPING FOR AIR! Then BOMB THEM BACK TO the stone age. No Time Like TODAY!!!!!!!!!

After, for sure. Before -- if you can prove that missiles have been mounted -- yes. Then, too. Cargo vessels do not carry missiles (unless they are the cargo).

...get used to it. Attacking Iran will fail over the long run, and will ensure they develop nukes to defend themselves.

Give me a freakin' break! Don't believe anything that comes out of Europe. They are just trying to delay Israel's attack (so obvious). I'm sure Obama and his socialistic, anti-Semitic, European elitists are trying all sorts of devious ploys to undermine Israel. Israel can only rely on themselves! Obama and friends are sheep in wolves' clothing. God bless, Israel!!!

from the time they hijacked the revolution. They represent an existential threat to Israel by their own admission. They use proxy terrorists and martyr wannabees who would do any crazy thing for martyrdom

It defies common sense that Iran would halt nuclear bomb and missile development after spending untold billions of dollars on it. On the eve of success. Don't believe it for a second. Destroy Iran's nukes NOW!

The Iranians won't care if you sink one of their cargo vessels *after* the missiles have been started.

Except it wouldn't be just one, would it? Think of all those sitting duck supertankers in the Persian Gulf that have been laid up and are being used as storage facilities. The problem with starting a stupid game, as your scenario suggests the Iranians might, is that you need to be able to sustain it while protecting your assets. Iran cannot. If they want to play games, Israel can raise the stakes.

India complained that they couldn't pay for oil imports or get paid for its exports to Iran because of the sanctions on banks. A barter system might help, and its ok if its rice, wheat, and other materials - but it only goes so far. Without hard currency, the actions are still limited. So, the sanctions are "epic fail". Tell that to the average folks who have seen prices soar, costs on imports skyrocket, unemployment grow, the Iranian hard currency reserves getting lower, and a sea full of Iranian oil tankers with no place to go. Iran even offered to insure those oil tankers if someone wanted to buy their product. Still, no takers.

which has the potential to be used in a military confrontation, they become a target. So, I would say....1.78 seconds after they leave territorial waters OR come within 5 km of potential targets, whichever is first.

Didn't work with Hitler and the Nazis, and the Iranians have proved themselves to be more fanatical and a bigger abuser of human rights. Romney got it correct in his speech. No one trusts Iran because Iran hasn't given anyone a reason to trust them.

Placing a missile launcher on a ship makes it a military vessel at that point. Otherwise, someone could claim that fully armed naval ships are civilian and "merely" have some armaments on them, which is ludicrous.

Basic barter trading is on the rise all over the world. The credit card companies and network providers have a monopolistic control over business processes. The barter system circumvents control that the few have over the many. I'll trade you some soviet missiles for yellow cake.

Do you really think that changes anything? Or that it would make Iranian vessels harder to identify? Think again. You can change the name of a vessel, you can change the vessel's flag and you can change the organizational jurisdiction of the owning entity. What you cannot change is the vessel identification number, its call sign and its classification society. In other words, Iran cannot hide its vessels.

Mounting missiles on some civilian ships - makes EVERY Iranian cargo ship a military target and can be sunk without further examination. That would now include all flagged vessels under flags of convience. This is a really stupid move on the part of the fascist Iranian regime.

A Russian company shamelessly advertises (AND HAS 1 CONTRACT to an “unknown” client) for a missile launching system encapsulated in a shipping container).

within 300 miles of US, Europe. Identifying such a ship and preventing covert launch is completely dependant on our intelligence services and that’s uncertain. And of course such 300-mile (or less) range missiles carry low yield nuclear weapons.

The *real* danger is a short / medium range missile that is started close to the US coast and causes a high altitude nuclear explosion (cf. the "Starfish Prime" experiment). This will cause the lights to go out in a large part of the country (probably forever). You can imagine the consequences for the population in a highy developed country like the US.

They haven't figured a way to design HALAL missiles, that would avoid killing Moo Slimes