King Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia visited the United States this week. While the Saudi monarch had traveled to other countries since ascending the throne in January, his visit to Washington was his first official state visit anywhere. To some, this fact by itself suggested that Saudi-US relations had recovered after coming under tremendous strain following the Arab Spring.

Salman met with President Barack Obama at the White House on Sept. 4, and senior members of his delegation attended a two-day conference focused on US-Saudi trade and investment opportunities. The king’s son, Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is the deputy crown prince and minister of defense, also accompanied the delegation and spoke about investment and business opportunities in the kingdom. While one should expect both sides to highlight the mutual interests that have sustained this special relationship for seven decades, the joint statement released after the White House meeting suggested that the leaders of the two countries did not avoid the thorniest issues, including the Iran nuclear deal, the continuing carnage in Syria, the fight against the Islamic State (IS) and the war in Yemen. And while there has always been broad agreement between the two countries over these issues, the divergence over the specifics has not been insignificant. The visit seems to have been an attempt to bridge this gap.

The timing of Salman’s visit struck some observers as curious. Some have suggested that it was a final attempt to scuttle the Iran deal, coming mere days before the congressional vote. A few have even suggested that the Saudis tried to influence the vote by arresting the mastermind of the 1996 Khobar bombing in Beirut, after he had been on the run for almost 20 years. Both Saudi and US officials have long maintained that the attack, which killed 19 US servicemen, was the work of the militant Shiite group Hezbollah al-Hejaz, with the support of the Lebanese chapter of the group and elements in the Iranian government. However, Saudi officials’ comments about the agreement over the past few weeks suggested that they had come to terms with the reality that opponents of the agreement had a steep hill to climb.

Following the Sept. 4 meeting at the White House, the Saudi foreign minister said the Saudis were now satisfied after Obama had assured Salman that the agreement ensured that Iran does not acquire a nuclear weapon by establishing a robust inspection regime and allowing sanctions to be snapped back should Iran violate its obligations.