No one knows how the businesses have been evaluated or who would be allowed to buy them. The suspicion is that highly profitable units would be transferred to elements from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and their bazaari partners organised in the so-called Islamic Coalition. The government's own banks will then provide the cash needed to buy the businesses.

Ahmadinejad is laying the banquet table for a big feast of plunder," said WOACC's spokesman. "The mullahs and Revolutionary Guardsmen who will buy the state-owned businesses, always with money borrowed from state-owned banks, plan to fire as many workers and strip as many assets as possible, taking their loot to Malaysia, Dubai and Austria."

The legendary people's army now has its hand in a broad and diverse variety of activities, such as dentistry and travel, and has become the dominant player in public construction projects across the country, say businessmen and economists in Tehran and analysts abroad.

Under the leadership of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a former Revolutionary Guard commander, the force also has extended its reach in the Cabinet: 14 of 21 members are former Guard commanders. Former officers also hold 80 of the 290 seats in the parliament and a host of local mayorships and local council seats. Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, is a former Guardsman.