Iran likely has a plan. What is it?
If I knew that I'd be pulling down six figures at some DOD think tank.
I can guess, of course, that Iran's theocracy is all behind "Death to the Jews" and "Death to the infidels!" (meaning, especially, Americans, but Christians in particular). Their hatred for all not their flavor of Muslim will be their downfall.
On the way to that, they have materially, financially, and otherwise supported terrorist groups which wage that war from the shadows while taking advantage of Western naivete to continue development of nuclear weapons and likely, in conjunction with the North Koreans, who may be acting as a Chinese proxy, delivery systems as well, even for the limited range needed in the Middle East and European theater.
Once they have that, there is really little to deter them from deploying those weapons except being sent to their 72 virgins a little earlier than they wanted.
It gets sticky when Israel would respond in kind to any such attack, with the Chinese in the area who can credibly claim that a major source of oil for China is a "national Interest" they must protect. I'm not really how sure how much they could deter any Iranian aggression, especially if the Iranians felt they could prevail in an exchange or a preemptive strike.
However, if such were to appear imminent, the use of conventional forces by Israel to prevent it would be seen as an act of aggression against Chinese 'National Interests', and they might become involved. If that were to happen, chances are very good that the US would get sucked into the fracas, one way or another.
The trick is to be there, but stay out of it directly, and let Israel maintain that it is doing whatever it is doing for defensive reasons, something most western governments will likely support. Finesse is called for to prevent an expanding conflict, and Iran is the wild card.
