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Iranian nuclear deal set to make IRGC richer – Reuters

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A possible nuclear deal between the world powers and the Iranian regime could make the regime’s Revolutionary Guards significantly richer, Reuters reported on Monday.

“Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards have done very well out of international sanctions — and if a nuclear deal is done in Vienna this week under which those sanctions are lifted, they are likely to do better still,” the report said.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), created by Khomeini during Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, is more than just a military force; it is also an industrial empire with political clout that has grown exponentially in the last decade.

A Western diplomat who follows Iran closely told Reuters that the IRGC’s recent annual turnover from all of its business activities was estimated to be around $10-12 billion.

The Iranian regime’s officials refuse to reveal the IRGC’s market share, but $12 billion would be around a sixth of Iran’s declared GDP, at current exchange rates.

Reuters quoted an Iranian official as saying that the IRGC control “major companies, and businesses in Iran such as tourism, transportation, energy, construction, telecommunication and Internet.”

“Lifting sanctions will boost the economy; it will help them to gain more money.”

The IRGC’s construction arm, Khatam Al-Anbia, thought by many to be Iran’s largest company, is developing parts of the giant South Pars gas field, and has a $1.2 billion contract to build a line of the Tehran metro and a $1.3 billion contract to build a pipeline to Pakistan.

But the IRGC also enjoys other significant competitive advantages, which will be even more useful if sanctions recede.

“Lower insurance, shipping, and commission costs with the banks will also enable the Guards to freely import spare parts, equipment, and technology from international companies,” the Western diplomat said.

Reuters quoted an Iranian trader based in a Gulf country who does business with some IRGC-affiliated firms as saying that the IRGC’s control over terminals in Iranian airports and ports helped them to move commodities in and out without paying duty.

“Much of the IRGC’s business is done through front companies, many of them not even formally owned by the Corps, but by individuals and firms linked to it,” the report said.

“For a few years now, the IRGC has being buying small and medium-sized companies in Iran and using them as front companies,” the trader said.

Reuters added: “To do business in Iran, foreign companies need an Iranian partner, which for large-scale projects often means firms controlled by the IRGC.”

“And that might, for instance, allow the Western oil firms that Iran wants to lure back to do business at arm’s length with Khatam al-Anbia, which is designated by Washington as a ‘proliferator of weapons of mass destruction’, and has at least 812 affiliated companies.”

“Companies should be careful when signing contracts because they’ll never know who’s really behind those companies,” the Western diplomat said.

The IRGC has good reasons of its own to welcome an international nuclear deal, beyond the mere prospect of economic growth and contracts with the foreign firms now queuing up to invest in Iran, Reuters said.

“For all its skill in circumventing trade sanctions, for instance by trading through third countries, some of the restrictions have begun to prove insurmountable.”