![\"Ken-Blackwell\"](\"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2015\/12\/Ken-Blackwell.jpg\" "\\"Ken-Blackwell\\"")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Hassan Rouhani will attempt to entice European investment on his tour of France and Italy later this month, but the money will simply go to the Revolutionary Guards and the Assad regime. That\u2019s according to former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Human Rights Commission, Ken Blackwell.<\/p>\n
Writing in Wednesday\u2019s edition of Investor\u2019s Business Daily, Blackwell argues there will be a \u201crelease of billions of dollars of Iran’s frozen assets\u201d following a loosening of sanctions, however, that \u201cthe agreement does not specify who will receive this money.\u201d<\/p>\n
Blackwell laments the fact that \u201cthe overwhelming proportion of the funds will probably go straight to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards, the very people whose images were broadcast on Iranian state TV parading our sailors with their hands behind their heads.\u201d<\/p>\n
Crucially for Blackwell, \u201cwhen Rouhani visits Italy and France later this month, he’ll try to entice European entities into doing more business with Iran. Even if he’s successful, Iran’s economy will remain engulfed in such crises that there’s no prospect for serious changes without major political alterations, which seems as unlikely as ever.\u201d<\/p>\n
This is because, in reality \u201cmore than 50% of Iran’s gross domestic product is controlled by 14 entities, all of which are affiliated with the military and security apparatus and controlled by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.\u201d This is according to the Paris-based Middle East Studies Foundation. Therefore \u201cvirtually all Western businesses that invest in Iran will be dealing with these entities and contributing to the expenses of the Revolutionary Guards, including financial aid to the Assad regime in Syria.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe money to be released from sanctions won’t seriously boost that economy or improve the lives of everyday Iranians. It will be at the disposal of the Guards and other entities that dominate Iran’s economic infrastructure.\u201d Blackwell continues, \u201cIts real effect will be to provide for the expenses of this regime’s terrorism, export of fundamentalism and suppression of the Iranian people, including dissidents such as members of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran.\u201d<\/p>\n
Proof of this is seemingly abundant, for example \u201cin September, the French Accor hotel chain signed a contract with the Iranian company Aria Ziggurat on the management of two 4- and 5-star hotels, Ibis and Novotel. Aria Ziggurat is 100% owned by the Segma tourism investment group, the Persian abbreviation for Iran Cultural Heritage & Tourism Investment Group, a branch of the Revolutionary Guards’ companies.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201c\u201cThe deferral of Iranian wealth to the Syrian and Iraqi battlefields is obligatory for the Iranian government. The supreme leader has outlined his “6th Economic Plan,” which will be implemented on March 21, calling for a portion of the country’s oil income to be placed on deposit to provide support for “revolutionary entities,” i.e. the Guards and foreign militias.\u201d\u201d<\/p>\n
Blackwell warns \u201cany such siphoning of Iran’s new revenue streams is sure to have a negative impact on the domestic economy, since the prospective recovery is already severely limited.\u201d As Mr Blackwell suggests, it\u2019s The Revolutionary Guards and the Assad regime that stand to gain by the loosening of the sanctions and Hassan Rouhani\u2019s visit to Europe.<\/p>\n