WALTER RUSSELL MEAD: Iran: Keeping The World’s Oddest Couple Together. “The alleged Iranian assassination plot against Saudi Arabia’s ambassador in the US (if the allegations hold up) is not news in the sense that it doesn’t tell us anything new or represent anything new about the structure of relations in the Middle East. But it is very important news about the temperature of Saudi-Iranian relations, the explosive character of a rivalry that helps to define regional politics, and the reasons why the oddest couple in the world – the US and Saudi Arabia – quarrel fiercely but never quite break up.”