Iran to buy Su-35 fighter jets from Russia

Tehran has previously provided drones to Russia which have been used against Ukrainian forces

A Sukhoi Su-35 jet fighter at Kubinka airbase, in Moscow. Reuters.

Iran has reached a deal to buy advanced Su-35 fighter planes from Russia, Iranian state media said on Saturday.

"The Sukhoi-35 fighter planes are technically acceptable to Iran and Iran has finalised a contract for their purchase," the broadcaster IRIB quoted Iran's mission to the UN as saying in New York.

The agreement expands a relationship under which Iranian-built drones have been used in Russia's war on Ukraine.

The report did not carry any Russian confirmation of the deal, details of which were not disclosed. The mission said Iran had also inquired about buying military aircraft from several other, unnamed countries, IRIB reported.

Russian President Vladimir Putin met Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Tehran last July, stressing closer ties in the face of Western pressure over the war in Ukraine.

Iran has acknowledged sending drones to Russia but says they were sent before Moscow's invasion of Ukraine last year.

Moscow denies that its forces use Iranian-built drones in Ukraine, although many have been shot down and recovered there. Iran’s air force has only a few dozen strike aircraft: Russian jets as well as ageing US models acquired before the revolution of 1979.

In 2018, Iran said it had started production of the locally designed Kowsar fighter jet for use in its air force. Some military experts believe the aircraft is a carbon copy of an F-5 first produced in the US in the 1960s.