Iran has more power and strength than ever before, but they are still a pissant country by comparison. So, I believe they are merely a puppet.
The Persians are still pissed about the meddling from the 1950's
My .02 ... Iran sees a chance to make a move for Global Islam, America is weak, look at the news the past few yrs, too many distractions at home - BLM, Trans Rights, the Afgan Pull Out was a disaster, Obama made the deal with Iran, Trump canceled it, as soon as Joe was in charge the deal was back on ... Uncle Joe gave Iran a pile of cash. We are pouring billions in cash and hardware into corrupt Ukraine Alining With China, exporting millions of barrels of oil daily as China ignores economic sanctions from hte west, mostly the US. As Russian relations with the west deterioriats Iran has engaed in some high level meetings in Moscow and significantly upgraded military, economic, and energy cooperation. Iran was been invited to join BRICS further insulating them from western sanctions.
Now is the time for Iran to use its Proxies to start taking bite out of Western Interests ... Houthi's attacking shipping this will have an affect on western economies [ as far as I know Chinese Shipping has not been hit yet ] ... Hamas Attacks Israel draining resources
The clash of civilizations has been coming for decades ... Islam and the West.
I do not think this is a case of Iran being someone elses puppet , Occom's Razor is working here ... multiple actors working to push America off the world stage as a military leader ... Islam wants to take over the world, Russia wants NATO off of their door step, China wants to take over the Pacific Rim lording over all ... right now there are common interestsd so they work together ...