On October 12, 2025, a series of leaked reports and pointed editorial commentary thrust Iran’s evolving military and economic strategy into the global spotlight. The revelations, first detailed by outlets including Newsweek, Defense Security Asia, and Reuters, confirmed that Iran has sealed a €6 billion deal with Russia to purchase 48 advanced Su-35 fighter jets—aircraft that could redefine the balance of power across the Middle East. The jets, scheduled for delivery between 2026 and 2028, represent not only a leap forward in Tehran’s aerial capabilities but also a symbol of deepening ties between Iran and Moscow, especially as Russia faces its own international isolation over the conflict in Ukraine.
Ali Shadmani, a senior official in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), emerged as the highest-ranking Iranian figure to publicly acknowledge the fighter jet deal. While Shadmani refrained from outlining the precise delivery schedule or the full scope of the agreement, his comments underscored a growing sense of confidence within Iran’s military establishment. According to Reuters, Western officials are watching the development with mounting concern, wary of how the Su-35’s arrival could challenge Israel’s longstanding technological advantage in the region’s skies.
The Su-35, known to NATO as the “Flanker-E,” is no ordinary warplane. It’s a single-seat, long-range, multirole fighter based on the Su-27 platform, but it boasts a slew of high-tech upgrades: infrared sensor systems, a digital cockpit, advanced defensive countermeasures, and the capacity to carry up to eight tonnes of ordnance on 12 hardpoints. It can reach speeds of Mach 2.25—roughly 2,390 kilometers per hour—and has a maximum range of 3,600 kilometers, making it a formidable strategic asset for any air force, let alone one that has operated mostly aging Russian and American aircraft for decades.
But the story doesn’t end in the cockpit. The timing and implications of this deal are inseparable from the broader context of Iran’s response to decades of international sanctions and pressure. On the same day the fighter jet purchase made headlines, the Tehran Times published a defiant editorial dissecting what it called the “limits of sanctions” and the West’s failure to curb Iran’s ambitions through economic isolation. The article, titled “Sanctions have limits; Iran is demonstrating that,” argued that the decades-old playbook of pressure, embargoes, and diplomatic isolation has not only failed to restrain Iran, but has, paradoxically, fueled its self-reliance and technological progress.
“For more than four decades, U.S. policy toward Iran has never deviated from a pattern of pressure, sanctions, and threats,” the Tehran Times observed. “Yet the reality today shows that all these policies have produced the opposite effect. Iran has transformed itself into a nation that, instead of depending on the West, relies on its own domestic strength and indigenous capacity.”
Indeed, the editorial catalogued a litany of achievements realized under the shadow of sanctions: from self-sufficiency in pharmaceuticals and the development of advanced drones, to breakthroughs in missile technology, nanoscience, nuclear engineering, and medical innovation. The message was unmistakable—every attempt to isolate Iran had only spurred new avenues of innovation and partnership, particularly with Eastern powers.
Iran’s shifting alliances are no longer hypothetical. In early October 2025, Tehran and Moscow inked a broad strategic partnership agreement, pledging to jointly develop advanced military technologies and deepen their economic cooperation. The Su-35 deal, then, is both a product and a signal of this new era. The Tehran Times further pointed to Iran’s recent accession to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the BRICS bloc, as well as its expansion of trade using local currencies, as evidence of a pivot away from Western-dominated systems and toward a multipolar, global South-centric order.
The editorial also referenced the recent 12-day conflict between Israel and Iran—a confrontation that, according to the Tehran Times, marked a turning point in the region. With the tacit approval of certain Western powers, Israel launched a military operation intended to deliver a decisive blow to Iran. Instead, Iran’s “precise missile and drone response not only neutralized the attack but also made one fact clear: the military option against Iran no longer exists.” The piece argued that Iran’s defense and deterrent capabilities, honed through years of sanctions and threats, have rendered external attempts at regime change or military intervention futile.
Meanwhile, Western think tanks and policymakers continue to debate the efficacy of reimposing sanctions. The Washington Institute’s call for a “snapback” of UN sanctions—a mechanism originally embedded in the 2015 nuclear deal (JCPOA)—was dismissed by the Tehran Times as both legally and practically irrelevant. “The U.S. withdrawal from the deal in 2018 automatically stripped Washington of any legal right to invoke that mechanism,” the editorial stated, noting that the UN Security Council rejected America’s attempt to reactivate it in 2020. The result, the article contended, is that sanctions have become more a symbolic gesture than a real instrument of leverage.
But perhaps the most provocative warning came in the form of a hypothetical scenario: if the West were to escalate economic warfare, Iran could retaliate by restricting passage through the Strait of Hormuz—the narrow waterway through which roughly one-third of the world’s oil and over a quarter of its liquefied natural gas flows. “Should Iran decide to restrict the passage of European and American vessels or impose stricter security inspections, the consequences would ripple instantly across the globe,” the Tehran Times cautioned. Oil prices could soar past $150 a barrel, supply chains would seize up, and global inflation would spike. In such a scenario, Western governments would face not only economic backlash but also political unrest at home.
“Sanctions are no longer the language of power; they are the language of failure,” the editorial concluded, framing Iran as a decisive actor capable of shaping regional and global dynamics—no longer merely a subject of international pressure, but an architect of the “new world order.”
The dual narratives emerging from Tehran—one of military modernization, the other of economic resilience—underscore a fundamental shift in the region’s strategic landscape. As Iran prepares to integrate the Su-35 into its air force, and as it continues to forge alliances beyond the West, the old certainties of Middle Eastern power politics are being challenged. For policymakers in Washington, Brussels, and Jerusalem, the question is no longer simply how to contain Iran, but how to adapt to a reality in which Tehran is both a military and economic force to be reckoned with.
In the months and years ahead, the world will watch closely as the first Su-35s touch down on Iranian soil and as the consequences of decades of sanctions play out on the global stage. The stakes, as both the fighter deal and the editorial make clear, have never been higher—or more unpredictable.