On Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin denied a report highlighted by the latest Washington Post that his country plans to sell an advanced radar system to Iran, describing it as "fake news."

Putin, who was speaking with NBC about US-Russia relations, said he had never heard of a plan to sell a satellite system to Iran that could track military targets across the Middle East.

He added: "This is just fake news. To say the least, I don't know anything about this kind of thing, it's just nonsense."

The Washington Post had said on June 10 that Russia was preparing to supply Iran with a high-resolution camera-equipped Kanopus-V satellite that could be launched from Russia within months.

The newspaper, which quoted three unnamed sources - a current and former US official and a senior official in the Middle East, said that the satellite will allow "continuous monitoring of facilities ranging from oil refineries in the Persian Gulf and Israeli military bases to Iraqi barracks housing US forces."

While the Kanopus-V is being marketed for civilian use, IRGC commanders have made several trips to Russia since 2018 to help negotiate the agreement, the newspaper said.

It added that Russian experts traveled to Iran this spring to assist training crews that will operate the satellite from a newly built facility near Karaj, west of Tehran.