There were important security aspects to Laurent Fabius’ visit to Iran last week — the first by a French foreign minister in 12 years. After the trip, Iranian government spokesman Mohammad-Bagher Nobakht said that “France could satisfy our need for Mirage warplanes ... buying new Mirage planes is the first priority of the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force [IRIAF].”

During the first Gulf War, Iran gained access to a small number of Iraqi Dassault Mirage F-1 warplanes. The aircraft were moved to Iran from fear of destruction in dogfights with more modern Western planes. Rather than returning them, Iran seized the aircraft as part of compensation for its 1980-88 war with Iraq.

Iran now possesses 24 Mirage F-1BQ and F-1EQ planes. It is not clear exactly how many of these fighters are operational. From the very beginning, Iran has had many problems in operating them. As the plane radars are designed for French and American air-to-air and air-to-ground missiles, Iran had for years serious problems with supplies, installation of radar, available missile synchronization and pilot training. However, it has been able to operate the F1 aircraft using domestically made missiles and making some alterations to the radar as well as the low-altitude navigation and infrared targeting systems.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, an IRIAF major told Al-Monitor, “Iranian pilots are usually not interested in flying Mirage planes. These aircraft aren't suitable for our air force. IRIAF squadrons consist of Russian and American equipment. I don't think that our Ministry of Defense wishes to purchase French aircraft for our air force. We have a lot of weaknesses in the air force fleet; our fourth-generation fighters, such as MiG-29, have not been upgraded to the SMT mode, our F-14s are still 'A' models and our close air support planes, such as F-5 Tigers, are so old. The reality is that our enemies around the region have the most modern American and Russian warplanes. It's clear that our air force needs new planes, but whatever our potential procurement, I'm sure of that it will not be French Mirage fighters!”