It sure is an interesting country, to say the least. I can't think of many other nations that have a build like that, yet people are falling dead in the streets from starvation and left to rot.
It is and that's another thing that Communism done...
As to Iran - well until 1979, when the Chomeini installed Sharia there, it was a mostly pro-Western country with all its attributes. But this is not matter of material values but of values of morality....