I talked to an Iranian who’d just got up and walked out of Iran around two years ago....finding his way into Europe. He pointed out an interesting trend over the past five years.
Basically....any successful businessman is attempting take his monthly or quarterly profits, and get the money traded in for Euro, dollars, or Dubai Dirham...then he finds this source to take the money out of Iran...usually into Dubai, and puts it either into a condo investment scheme, or a bank. The sense is, the Iranian economy is failing (probably has been this way for decade now), and just wait for the eventual collapse. It’s now impossible (as my associate laid out the story) to find foreign currency, because no wants to hold onto Iranian Rial.
All of this triggers banking issues because you can’t get loans for mortgages or business expansion. The general attitude is to wait till the collapse now...even if it takes another entire decade. He even sat there and suggested that most of the money Obama airlifted in (the Euro and dollars)....were handed out for VIP currency transactions, which then week by week....left the country for more investment into Dubai, or purchase of gold, dollars or Euro.
I estimate that Iran’s internal security is many times more powerful and more violent than Venezuela.
If Venezuela can’t knock out a dictator who has impoverished the entire country, I don’t see how average Iranian citizens can knock out the Revolutionary Guard.