from what i can ascertain, iranian scientific capabilities (in general) are pretty pathetic, and it's always been that way. iran has at times written some good poetry, and the kurds had their hey dey in the dark ages, but if the iranians had any science at all in antiquity it was utterly forgotten during the islamic invasion in the 7th century, which burned and destroyed everything. from what we can tell, iranian society from the 4th century bce to the 7th century ce was actually foundationally greek after alexander chased off the achaemenids. the achaemenids, themselves, were obsessed with the phoenecians and the jews, and they let these semitic groups take over the administration of their large empire. after the arabs came the mongols, who were worse, and the area has really never recovered from the mongols.

the persians/iranians were good at war, and they were good at economics, but all evidence we have tells us that they have always sucked at science.

i think the iranians would love to build a bomb, and they kind of clearly need one, too. they never will because they can't; they're not able to. this foray into fundamentalism and backwardsness isn't going to help them.

it's a red herring, anyways. their allies - china and russia - would never allow it. more realistic is that the chinese will station bombs in iran or central asia to protect the minerals, which are quite substantive.

i'm more interested in dismantling the iranian state and supporting groups fighting for that on the ground. this might be bullshit, but i'll take it as a way in.