Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard have done very well despite 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 Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), created by Ayatollah Ruholla 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, benefiting from the favor of former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, himself a former guardsman and, most recently, from the opportunities created by Western sanctions.
A Western diplomat who follows Iran closely says that the IRGC's recent annual turnover from all of its business activities was estimated to be around $10 billion to $12 billion.