Sagg-e Zard

What was all that brouhaha about black listing Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps as a terrorist organization? I believe, the West needed to help position an actor within the Islamic regime who is capable of balancing the extreme elements while allowing the improvement of geopolitics for the major players' benefit. The IRGC helps secure the existence of the hard-line faction of the regime's hierarchy, as well as facilitates most of its business transactions. By threatening the existence of this apparatus which is the main artery of the supreme leader's faction, the West calculated and received a moderating response. Grand Ayatollah Khamenei was put in the corner and pushed to anoint Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani as the head of the most powerful clerical body in the Islamic regime: Assembly of Experts (مجلس خبرگان رهبری, Majles-e-Khobregan). It is also very interesting that a deal was allegedly foiled at the same time in California to send 100,000 submachine guns to aid Rafsanjani's faction counter Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's presidency.

Survival of the theocratic establishment is a vital priority to Rafsanjani, not due to any dogma, it is no secret that Mr. Rafsanjani has amassed a huge fortune since 1979 reaping some of the largest stakes from the revolutionary confiscations of private property, including industrial and agricultural holdings. Now he controls imports of automobiles as well as assembles Daewoo cars in Iran. He exports agricultural products including the highly prized pistachios, topping more than $400 Million in 2003. He owns his own airliner called Mahan Air with a fleet of 27 mostly Airbus and Boeing passenger jets. Kish Island, the Persian Gulf's most popular island destination is also controlled by Rafsanjani and his family, to just name a few of his business holdings.

Rafsanjani is acting as a safety valve, he has been a sweetheart of the the west for a longtime and the regime considers him indispensable, he is a deal maker who does not tolerate any opposition to the "grand plan" at hand. But most importantly, he is a man with many trusted and powerful friends in office around the globe.

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Labels: Daewoo, IRGC, Khamenei, Mahan, Rafsanjani, USA