One thing people often forget about Iran is that they do seem to have a pretty high degree of native engineering capability, even in spite of the worlds worst brain drain rates.
They manufacture a hell of a lot of stuff on their own, and while Persian cars aren't going to beat any respectable international manufacturer, they're at least respectably mediocre, rather than a joke like the Lada or Yugo. When they beat Saddam in the Iran-Iraq war, a huge part of that was because they had the local know how to keep their American jets flying in spite of a complete embargo on parts and supplies (Iran's near-total air superiority was arguably the deciding factor in that war).
Which really isn't much more than to say they're more akin to Soviet Russia rather than (insert joke dictatorship here) when it comes to technology. But a lot of people really blow that off.