> During the Cold War, Qaddafi's Libya got very close to the
> USSR. The Soviets sold him MiGs, for instance. The Islamic
> Republic of Iran never got that close to either the USSR or the USA.
Of course, they didn't need to: they inherited one of the most capable and well-armed/trained air forces in the world after the revolution: hundreds of US-made F-14s, F-4s and F-5s. They were set for the next decade. Around 1991, after sanctions kept them from being able to maintain the US hardware, they went on a buying spree, picking up ~350 aircraft from FSU. In a sort of ironic twist, they eventually sold MiG-29s to China that they got from Iraq during Desert Storm.
/jordan