Iranian Army Chief of Staff Muhammad Bagri announced today (Tuesday) a major arms deal between his country and Russia, in which Iran will purchase fighter jets and modern helicopters made in Moscow.
Bagri said the remarks during his visit to Russia and said further discussions were expected on the purchase of the weapons and their transfer to Iran.
Among the weapons that Iran is interested in buying, according to a report in the Tassan news agency, is the new Sukhoi-30 fighter jet, as well as fighter helicopters and training planes made in Russia.
The Iranian Air Force suffers from very outdated equipment, some of which arrived in the country as early as the 1960s under the rule of the Iranian Shah.
Iran has 24 Russian-made MiG-29s received after the Iran-Iraq war.
In 2017, Russia handed over to Iran several batteries of the S-300 air defense system after a difficult pressure campaign on the part of Tehran.
The UN arms embargo on Iran was lifted last year and Tehran hoped to quickly equip itself with modern fighter jets, in order to protect its airspace from attacks capable of hitting the country's nuclear facilities. However, both Russia and China have so far refused to sell advanced fighter jets to Tehran. , This for fear of damaging relations with the United States.
It is unclear at this time whether Russia is indeed considering transferring advanced weapons to Tehran, but the Kremlin may be considering this as a means of exerting pressure on the administration and US President Joe Biden.
A significant upgrade of Chai to Iranian air could make it more difficult to attack Iran's nuclear facilities in the event that talks on a nuclear deal fail.
