Rossian,
Your Iranian friend may well be right.
Iran has a long and illustrious history behind it, Saudi Arabia has none.
Think back to how nearly Xerxes came to defeating Greece and what then would have happened to European history? After that came a succession of empires - all great and cultured - Seleucid, Parthian and Sassanian, until the Arabs came.
Iran has good reason to be proud of its illustrious past.