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Iran has started production of the locally-designed Kowsar fighter plane for use in its air force, state television reported, as tensions mount with the United States after the reimposition of U.S. sanctions on Tehran.

The United States said on Friday it will temporarily allow eight importers to keep buying Iranian oil when it re-imposes sanctions on Monday to try to force Iran to curb its nuclear, missile and regional activities.



Iran says the Kowsar is “100-percent indigenously made” and able to carry various weapons and is to be used for short aerial support missions.



However, some military experts believe the fighter jet is a carbon copy of an F-5 first produced in the United States in the 1960s.



The Islamic Republic launched in 2013 what it said was a new, domestically-built fighter jet, called Qaher 313, but some experts expressed doubts about the viability of the aircraft at the time.