Logic might have been that it's pointless since the Gulfies and Israel would be armed with the best from the West.
Instead they played to their """""""""strengths"""""""""" of jihadi proxies and various missiles.
It actually sounds like the Mullahs there are the national security planner version of dalal Academics like that Raghuram Rajan, who continuously shills his ((( comparative advantage ))) creed everywhere
Could very well be the US warned Russia & China against exports of cutting edge weapons or their technology to Iran.
That consensus broke down once Trump & later Biden assumed office. However by the time Iran could capitalise on it , they actually believed & carried their belief of being Imam Ali's representative on earth to fight injustice too far .
See this is the dilemma all sponsors of proxies face . Reason you've proxies is mostly coz you can't fight your opponents fair & square .
You then assemble proxies for they're expendable. The dilemma arises when you yourself are too ideologically committed to the goal you share with your proxies. Then the lines get blurred. Iran never quite solved this dilemma & got sucked into events now beyond its control.
The counter point is also equally important. You've Fauji Foundation next door who also is a sponsor of proxies. However Fauji Foundation is very clear about its fundamentals. The proxies are expendable.
Up until now they haven't exactly faced a challenge. They kept successive administrations in India off guard with N blackmail every time we got ready to retaliate.
Their real test comes now when we are taking them down one by one courtesy namaloom afraad & thru air strikes in Balakot earlier & now across Paxtan.
If the proxies sense loss of enthusiasm for jihad or dilution in ideology or commitment there's a good chance these proxies would turn on the sponsor.
We've already the case of JeM planning the assassination of Musharraf only to be busted by Fauji Foundation with Masood Azhar spending quite a few years in house arrest . So that's the other side of the coin.
I've also been given to understand in the case of Iran the clergy is so all pervading & all powerful that if they command the army to do something & the general expresses his inability he's either replaced with a pliable general or they get the IRGC to do their bidding.
In other words there's no professionalism. Compared to them our babooos & dhotis come out of this smelling of roses. Hence this cumulative failure is also in great part due to the way the system is designed & run.
Incidentally you'd see much the same with China where political commissars rule the roost over professionals including the Army.
