This kind of aggression, however, does seem to make their value as a deterrent clear.
Observe how nobody is fucking with North Korea like they did with Iraq or Venezuela.
Also in a "if I'm going down, everyone else is going down with me", which is Ian's strategy in this war (for good reasons). If the IRGC had nukes, and was severely threatened (like, killing the Supreme Leader and threatening to kill all of the replacements until they bend to the US/Israel will), they might have decided to go out "with style".
To be clear I don't like the idea of MAD one bit. But this is indeed how it's meant to work.
Unlike NK, Iran has a leadership that declared destroying some countries their raison d'etre.
They want Islam to dominate the world, that can't happen if there isn't a world left to dominate.
