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Story highlights US relieved at succession plan roll-out after King Abdullah's death Saudi Arabia a key anti-terror ally in volatile region But tensions still simmer with Riyadh over Iran

Relief is palpable in Washington over the well-planned and seamlessly executed transfer of Saudi Arabia's throne to King Salman bin Abdulaziz, 79, following the death of his 90-year-old half brother King Abdullah.

The kingdom, despite signaling rare public dissent with the Obama administration over Iran and the Arab Spring, is a fulcrum of U.S. diplomacy in a region where Washington is struggling to adapt to dissolving national borders, chaotic change and sectarian carnage.

Never mind that the U.S. is the world's foremost democracy and the transfer of power in Saudi Arabia was from one autocrat to the next.

Saudi Arabia is crucial to U.S. goals on counter-terrorism, the campaign against ISIS and Al-Qaeda, the free flow of energy that sustains the global economy, as a counter-balance to Iran and as a sponsor of the long frustrated quest for peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

In a sign of the kingdom's importance to the United States, President Barack Obama made hurried plans to call in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday after his trip to India to pay his respects to Abdullah and his family and to meet with King Salman. Originally, Vice President Joe Biden was to have made the trip.

The message from Washington is clearly : Long live the new king.

The regal choreography in Riyadh is especially welcome to the White House as it contrasts with events just across the border in Yemen, another key ally where a US-backed government crucial to its anti-terror campaign has just been toppled to rebels supported by Iran.

James B. Smith, who served as U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia between 2009 and 2013, said there should be no concern in the administration that Salman's ascension will jeopardize U.S. relations with the deeply conservative kingdom.

Lines of succession

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