US President Barack Obama and Saudi King Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud reaffirmed the “enduring relationship” between their countries in a joint statement following their White House meeting on Sept. 4.

Differences are not the material of joint statements, and it was left to the leakers, pundits and advocates to remind us of the tensions in the bilateral relationship. But differences, either slight or significant, are more normal than not in US-Saudi relations. Today it’s Iran, and to a lesser extent Syria and Yemen; at other times it has been Israel, Palestine and Iraq. Bruce Riedel writes that the United States and Saudi Arabia have been “uneasy allies for 70 years. They share interests, not values.” In other words, the Saudi kingdom is not the United Kingdom.

For the record, Obama and Salman agreed to cooperate on Iran “to counter Iran’s destabilizing activities in the region.” The king also “expressed his support for the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action between Iran and the P5+1 countries, which once fully implemented will prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and thereby enhance security in the region.” The king’s position on the Iran deal reiterated and reinforced that of the US-Gulf Cooperation Council Camp David Summit in May.

For those who still might claim America’s “Arab allies” are opposed to the Iran deal, it is time for a fact check. As this column observed last month, it is Israel, alone among US allies and partners in Europe, Asia and the Middle East, that is on the record as opposed to the JCPOA.