Its an acceptable tradeoff for their leaders.
Unlike other nuclear powers, the mullahs want to be incinerated if it means their “12th imam” crawls out of the well.
Even the Soviet Union was never that nuts. Castro and Guevara wanted to commandeer the missiles in Cuba, and that scared the crap out of Khruschev - the real reasonthe missiles were pulled out. Maybe the Chinese would be crazy enough, calling the loss of a few hundred million of their own population acceptable (a thought publically express by one of their generals BTW). That could be overridden.
But still that leaves the mad mullahs (maybe with the civilians looking to send them to Evin Prison), or Lil Kim gets depressed and ronery.
I have a quibble there. I think they are hypocrites. The hot-shots drink alcohol. They compulsively download pornography (including UBL). I'd bet a solid majority of the leadership are milking it for the power and the access to babes.
I'll bet they want to live.