Russia says it has no intention of abandoning Iran as it faces Israel’s wrath

It’s widely expected that Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Iranian counterpart, Masoud Pezeshkian, could sign a heavily-previewed Comprehensive Strategic Partnership agreement at the summit, signaling they’ll deepen cooperation in a number of areas, and potentially on a military level. “Expect to see a commitment to defense cooperation (likely vaguely worded and deliberately opaque) and a script that claims Russian-Iranian alignment against a Western ‘agenda of aggression’,” Burcu Ozcelik, senior research fellow for Middle East security within the International Security department at the Royal United Services Institute think tank, told CNBC in emailed comments.