It seems like there's a decent amount of differences and things that set it apart from the ME.

Biggest and most important differences are cultural. Iran for most of the history was called Persia (in 30's shah specifically asked to drop this name in favor of Iran) by Westerners. While first Caliphs conquered Persia/Iran and Islam took roots there rather successfully, all attempts of Arabization were successfully opposed in contrast to the rest of Middle East and North Africa, were Arabian language pushed out Aramaic, Greek and Berberic. Attempts of Arabization was actually an impulse for Persians to turn towards they own culture, resulting in strengthening of national identity.

Another major difference is that Iran is the only Shiite country. Even during Crusades, combating heretics was seen as nearly as important as fighting Franks, and in todays religious climate of the region this is no small matter either.

Basically grouping Iran and rest of Middle East in one is like grouping Scandinavia and Italy- they have fare share of similarities, but on closer look that is two different cultures.

Middle East is the name of the region, not a descriptor of the people within it. There are issues with the term - it is necessarily western-centric, since 'East' is a relative term that only makes sense from somewhere further 'West'.

"Near East" was actually the term given to most of what is today the Middle East, and generally referred to the lands of the Ottoman Empire (which at its greatest extent stretched from modern Turkey down to Syria, western Arabia and Yemen, and along most of the North African coast). I've seen it said that 'Middle East' was initially coined by the British to refer to Afghanistan (situated between the Near East and the Far East, i.e. China), and that Middle East in its modern usage was coined by the US in the early 20th century.

Regardless, virtually any conception of the Middle East today includes Iran, Egypt, and all the countries between them. Even if you take issue with the term and call it by West Asia, that's not a great term, and there's no real agreement on where Iran fits. You'll sometimes see Iran termed as part of West Asia, while for instance the UN Statistical Department defines it as South Asia (it would seem because it is geographically south of Central Asia), though South Asia typically refers to the Indian subcontinent.

So Iran is kind of on the border between the east and west, north and south of Asia. That fits it geographically, but not culturally - Iran has a lot of history with the Indian subcontinent, Central Asia, and West Asia, but by virtue of being so big, and having such a distinguished history, doesn't fit in the neat boxes we assign its neighbouring regions.

There's a lot to be said about Iran and its Arab neighbours, and its very complex relationship with them. Iran owes the Arabs for its religion, alphabet and many aspects of its culture. In turn the Arabs owe a lot of their own civilisational history to the influence of Iran, and many of the great scientists and writers in Arabic came from Iranian stock. But I'm not sure that bears greatly on the issue of what world region Iran is in.

Iran is a multicultural, multiethnic, multireligious society, like many other countries. It has a long, long hstiry, and it's culture has greatly influenuential, including on Christianity.

The Middle East does not consist of a singular "Them who are all alike, and different ftom Us", they're just people like anywhere else, with the same range if skin shades (why is that even relevant?) Not a stereotype. The people in the middle east, like people everywhere, are all each unique individuals, with unique and individual life experiences, beliefs, views, backgrounds etc..

See, terms like "Europe" or "Middle East" are arbitrary, made up geographic terms, not separate worlds occupied by a separate and distinct people.

All countries have differences. And similarities. But if you want to know some major differences between Iran and other regional states: Iranians are mostly ethnically Persian, and speak Farsi which is an Indo-European language distantly related to English, while there is a minority of Arabic speakers. Iran could geographically be classified as Central Asian too, but again, these are man made classifications not facts of nature.

This of course comes as a surprise to many who assume that the Mideast is just one big desert full of camel riding Arabs stretch g form China to the Mediterranean Sea. In other words they think of the world regions as stereotypes. There's actually very good skiing in Iran.