US President Barack Obama will host Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir at the White House on Friday.  It’s Mr. Obama’s first meeting with a key ally after striking the nuclear deal with Iran earlier in the week, and he will try to ease Saudi concerns about its biggest rival in the region.

Al-Jubeir already met with Secretary of State John Kerry on Thursday, but did not explicitly endorse or reject the deal.  He did speak of the need for inspections to verify Iran is complying with the terms of the deal, and the rapid return of economic sanctions if Tehran is found to be cheating.

After Israel, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States are the most likely to oppose the deal.  But Mr. Obama already paved the way, at least partially, in a Camp David summit held in May with Gulf leaders.  And the Saudis already received assurance of America’s continued friendship because Washington backed the Saudi war on Iran-backed Houthi fighters in Yemen.

“The Pentagon has already given Riyadh what it wants – a blank check in Yemen,” said Bruce Riedel of the Brookings Institution think tank.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly trashed the deal with Iran.  Mr. Obama has attempted to hold “intensive” personal talks, but the Israeli leadership “have made clear privately and publicly that they do not want to engage in this conversation,” said an unnamed White House official to the Reuters news agency.  It's likely that Netanyahu is just using the issue as a bargaining chip in unrelated discussions about Washington’s US$3 Billion yearly contribution to Israel’s security, due to expire in 2017.  Talks on the successor to that agreement are already underway.

On Monday, the UN Security Council will vote on Monday on a resolution to approve the deal, but that’s a cinch.  The five permanent members of the Security Council (US, UK, France, Russia, China) plus Germany and the European Union negotiated the deal with Iran.  The pact calls for lifting international economic sanctions in return for long-term curbs on Tehran’s nuclear program. 

Prime Minister Tony Abbott already signaled his agreement, qualified with the understanding that Iran’s compliance will be verified.