Arguably, Iran has ample economic resources. Iran has the largest natural gas reserves and second largest oil reserves of the world. It is not that Iran lacks human resource either. Its population is about 75-million & Iranian engineers & doctors are good (probably at par with Turkey). Iran covers about 1.532 sq. km land area (about twice that of Pakistan) which gives the country sufficient depth & space for development. But is this sufficient to achieve super power status in any field?
Remember, we are talking of “Economic Super Power” not mere regional economic power. Before the discovery of oil, Iran was a relatively poor country. Even though oil was discovered in 1908, Iran remained severely underdeveloped until the Shah’s White Revolution of the early 1960’s and the Allies were able to occupy Iran without any armed struggle during WW2.
Iran’s progress in the fields of education and infra structure is barely 50 years old. Additionally, Iran went thru a bloody revolution in 1979 which produced chaos and pushed Iran back 30 years. When you add the 10 year war with Iraq and with suicidal policies of the revolutionary regime; even the suggestion of Iran achieving an economic super power level in the near future is ludicrous.
However, Iran was and would no doubt become the dominant economic as well as military regional power quite rapidly.
