This is interesting and suggests (to me) that Israel saw a rare opportunity and took it:
The Bloomberg television network revealed overnight into Saturday that in the attack attributed to Israel at the Iranian consulate in Syria, the entire command hierarchy responsible for the activities of the Revolutionary Guards in Syria and Lebanon was killed. According to the report, “the senior officers were pivotal for Hezbollah’s activities in the region.”
The “consequences of becoming a rogue nuclear state” would be better treatment from other nations, more respect and a willingness among their enemies to negotiate rather than attack them. There wouldn’t be any talk about bombing them if they were known to have nukes.
If they had nuclear weapons I’m very sure they’d immediately go public about it to improve their international position; if there’s any lesson from the last few decades of international relations it’s that it’s in the interests of every nation to have nuclear weapons. Since without them you will be constantly bullied by those that do, but with them you’ll be treated with kid gloves.
I guess they don’t watch a lot of Star Trek in Iran? Putting the entire command crew in the same shuttlecraft is a rookie mistake and something bad always happens.