Yes that's also part of the reason, no one's going to listen to Saudia if it was like Yemen or something
But other muslim countries are going to be reluctant in accepting a Shia Iran who is interested in spreading it's form of islam
That's the issue, thier being Shia isn't an issue but they're very aggressive when it comes to spreading thier ideology to other countries
(Just like Saudis aka Ladin, Wahabi which was also foreign to majority of muslim countries but it came under the guise of sunni ideology unlike Iran which spreads fundamentalist ideology through Shiate sect (although it's not as bad as Saudi but they have thier millitias))
I agree with both your point Petro dollars and issues of sunni/Shia overblown but Iranian reputation in middle east/muslim countries is bad which makes me thing it'll be hard for tham to unite Muslim world like Saudi has for decades
I don't know if people/government will be comfortable in accepting thier hegammany especially from a relgious angle (which seems to be thier primary focus)
