After examining almost thirty years of Iran's handling of the project [to launch a communications satellite], the question also arises whether the project will ever materialize. Many times over the years Iran has concluded contracts that have repeatedly come to naught. Iran's difficulties in obtaining its own communications satellite are even more conspicuous against the background of other Middle East states' success in this domain. In a world where communications satellites are produced and launched by commercial bodies, the ownership of communications satellites has become solely an economic enterprise. Thus, aside from Israel, which produces its own communications satellites, today Saudi Arabia has its own communications satellites (through the ArabSat project, which has launched eight satellites to date); Egypt owns two satellites (the NileSat project); Turkey owns four satellites (project TurkSat); and the United Arab Emirates (with their own Thuraya satellites, a unique technological project that cost over $1 billion) has already launched two of its three satellites.

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Shapir, Yiftah S. "Iran's Efforts to Conquer Space." Strategic Assessment (JCSS). Vol. 8, No. 3 (November 2005). [ 2 quotes ]