"I'm not convinced that having nukes keeps a country safe from attack."

You made the point: "I'm not convinced that having nukes keeps a country safe from attack."

Safe from attack as 80 years of no attacks has proved.  But it has come close, with only Russia showing restraint at the time of the Cuban missile crisis.

Perhaps only safe as regards the major players - USSR/Russia v the West who have never used them on themselves because of Mutually Assured Destruction.  It seems to me that the worst culprit is the Great Western Powers who have abused their powers over the centuries.  If you sow the wind you reap the whirlwind.  In other words it comes back to haunt you as we found with Iran's nasty, vicious rulers on their people.  We taught them how to do it!  Treat other peoples cruelly, as we have done and they soon become just as cruel.  We treated the Jews cruelly and they are treating the Gazans, Palestinians and Lebanese cruelly.

MAD has kept the peace from balanced out power between the major players.  No peace with Israel because only they have WMD in the Middle East; yet, they remain so paranoid they have to maintain the attacks to maintain their hold on the land, so get understandable attacks back from the nations like Iran that they are so hostile to!

It is the fear of your deadly enemy getting WMD and using them against you that leads to war, as we have found this time - from 28 Feb with Bibi and Don: THE  men of violence.  It was the fear of Saddam having nukes that led our side to go to war with Iraq in March 2003 in the 2nd Gulf War.  Yet, I read in Bibi's book that it was Israel who destroyed Iraq's nukes years before!  In defeating Iraq we destroyed the MAD balance between Iran and Iraq.  It was a catastrophe for Iraq.  We are now trying the same tactic on Iran, to destroy them, leave chaos and Iranians desperate for the peace and security of Europe.

Remove Saddam to get peace and harmony in the region, "taking away the toxic fuel that powered Islamist extremism.  Democracy would replace dictatorship.  Israel would be safer."  Bowen p 129

"As of 2025, the nine countries possessing nuclear weapons are Russia, the United States, China, France, the United Kingdom, India, Pakistan, Israel, and North Korea."  from Ecosia AI

It is very telling that our allies on our side are allowed to have them secretly, like Israel with no sanctions as a penalty, but not Iran.  As always, we favour our own friends over the others!  We are allowed to get away with wrongdoing because we are part of Donald's World Empire.

What follows is my understanding and conclusions from Jeremy Bowen's 'The Making of the Modern Middle East', especially the chapter on Iran called, 'In the Name of God'. From p 108

We cannot allow Iran to have nukes because, since the 19th century, Britain first, then with America, has dominated the Middle East with all our many self-serving interventions by "perfidious Albion" (us!).  Therefore, we set a very bad example with the decisions we took in Iran to show them that we are Boss.  My list of our sins:

1. In 1820 we took control of the Persian Gulf to prevent pirates from operating to disrupt our supply lines between our colonies and the motherland;
2. the overthrow of the Ottoman Empire to be replaced by the Western Judeo-Christian Empire;
3. the Arabs sidelined and losing out over the carve up of the Middle East by Britain, France and America, the most powerful bloc in the League of Nations;
4. Mandate for Britain to rule Palestine and Transjordan;
5. Mandate for France to rule Syria and Lebanon;
6. T E Lawrence was let down along with the Arabs even though they had helped us 'win' the First World War;
7. the major illegality under international law (land gained from aggression is kept) was America allowing our Jewish/Zionist friends to have the weapons to overthrow the British Empire in 1948 and, by superiority of everything, to defeat the Arab nations, too in 1948 and in subsequent wars.  Bowen on p 60 records examples of how "Like all wars it was a brutal business" in April 1948.  But it was Jewish David v Arab Goliath.
8. America and Britain replaced democratically elected President Mossadeq in 1953 with our man, the Shah of Iran.  "The shah was an autocrat at the head of a vicious police state that allowed no political freedom."  - Jeremy Bowen p 116.
9. American shooting down of an Iranian airliner in 1988.
10. In brief, the major injustices were: our side's hostilities to the people of the Middle East and our insistence on maintaining our importance to ensure we got our way in the region.

I think, all this must have led to Iran's hostile reaction to the American led West, including Israel.  It certainly could not have helped.  I think they have been more sinned against by us lot, which may have led to Islam becoming even more dominant and extreme in Iran.  Although with 9/11, 15 of the 19 hi-jackers were Saudi, an ally of the West.  None were from Iraq or Iran.

You mention "religious fanaticism" but we don't see it from Muslims in Britain or in other Muslim regions of the world.  Right wing, Christian nationalism in America is more of a problem, methinks.  They are fanatics, zealots for war instead of diplomacy and tolerant, peaceful, co-existence.  Peter Hegseth and Trump and Netanyahu don't know the meaning of those words.