Iran

The movers and the Iranian economy

They carry names such as “the seal of the prophets”, but they are nothing more than gigantic Profit Center in the economic system of the Gottesstaates. With religious foundations to control Iran’s elites in the economy.

Every traveler at the international airport of Tehran lands, to the customers of the Iranian revolutionary guards – whether he likes it or not. For the elite troop of the Islamic Republic operates the Imam Khomeini International Airport in the Iranian capital, and has thus alone through the Start – and landing fees are a very lucrative business. Also at the other airports and sea ports in the country control the forces of the ‘Sepah Pasdaran’ Iran’s borders. You decide what Goods into the country to be left and what not. You pay neither customs nor taxes and answer to no one answer the question of guilty, how many goods in which value on the black market land, and what they bring.

The “army of the guardians of the Islamic Revolution”, …

… the official Name, has Land, sea and air forces, controls Iran’s strategic weapons Arsenal and is on a troop level of more than 120,000 appreciated. Also, the Revolutionswächter a gigantic business enterprises, eye clinics operates, motor vehicles, motorways, Railways, and even underground Railways builds. They are closely related to the Oil and gas industry of the country are intertwined, to build dams and in the mining industry actively.

Their activities are difficult to summarize, only rare reports in Western media, such as 2009, the BBC. Then, there was an Eight-billion-Dollar Deal of the revolutionary guards, to the southeastern port Tschahbahar to the Iranian railway network to connect. Of the deep-sea port on the Gulf of Oman to the border with Pakistan, there are less than 100 kilometres, the resource-rich Afghanistan is only a day away.

Commander-meeting of the revolutionary guards in Tehran

A leading role in this strategic infrastructure project, as with many other multi-billion dollar investment, was Khatam-al-Anbia (English: the seal of the prophets). Behind the pious name lies, however, not a non-profit purpose, but the technology Holding company of the revolutionary guards. Originally, end of the 1980er years for the reconstruction of the country after the war against Iraq was launched, the Pasdaran under a from their own ranks, under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, their economic influence massively.

Meanwhile, the entrepreneur in Uniform, around a third of the national economy control and this is a realistic estimate, says Iran expert Bahman Nirumand, in an interview with Deutsche Welle. “Of course there are no precise statistics and data about but that is the prevailing view, that a third – maybe more – of the Iranian economy in the hands of the revolutionary guards.” According to estimates by the world Bank amounted to the economic performance of the country in 2014, more than 425 billion US dollars – this would give the operations of the Pasdaran, a volume of around 140 billion dollars.

Entrepreneurs in the Klerikergewand

The Iranian economy is, however, not only by the uniformed Strippenziehern of the revolutionary guard controls – there are also religious foundations of the Shiite Top clergy in the country directly be steered. The Foreign Ministry in Berlin estimates that by the elites of the Gottesstaates controlled companies, a total of up to 80 percent of the Iranian economy dominate.

No one knows the entire scope of your business. You must have your books, does not disclose, and no public authority to be accountable. As during the presidency of Ahmadinejad billion disappeared, many Iranians wondered where the money had stayed in. Answers could not, however, get reminded of Bahman Nirumand. Corruption there have also been under the Shah, the Berlin-based Germanist and publicist, “but that was small pickpockets in comparison to those who now exercise Power”.

From the refinery to the dam: The Internet presents itself Khatam-al-Anbia as a modern company

A large religious Foundation is ‘Setad’ is known. According to the research of the Reuters news Agency, more than 90 billion heavy “headquarters for the enforcement of the commands of eemaan” was from the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, shortly before his death in 1989, launched. Originally she was the leader of the revolution as a kind of clearing house for the real estate property of emigrated or expropriated Shah-supporters to support the poor and the needy created. Since then, the Setad one of the most influential companies in the country, was rebuilt, the ‘Supreme leader’ of Iran, under the direct supervision.

Who benefits from the end to the sanctions?

Logo of the Holding company, Khatam-al-Anbia

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei controls since 1989, the Setad Empire, according to Reuters, in Finance, in the Oil and Telecom industry as well muscles, as in the market for Anti-Baby pills or in the Straußenzucht. At the most recent sanctions list of the USA was the Setad-conglomerate with numerous divisions represented. This was the U.S. government directly, the economic interests of the Iranian leadership meetings. Because according to the words of the US Treasury is Setad no harmless Foundation, but also a “huge network of cover firms, on behalf of the Iranian leadership assets transfer.”

And so, from the lifting of Western sanctions, probably the most of the multi-billion dollar company to benefit from the elites of the Gottesstaates to be steered. Bahman Nirumand has at least some hope that the population is not completely empty assumes a: “Even the normal people will have something like this, probably because of the trade more in the swing of things to come. And as a result, the merchants and the Bazaaris in Iran and all of the services offer by the end of the sanctions.”