Outgoing top U.S. military official vows strong military ties with Israel amid growing grudges over Iran nuclear deal

Outgoing U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey stressed on Tuesday during his final visit to the region a strong defense and military partnership with Israel amid the two nations' growing grudges over a potential nuclear deal between Iran and the world powers.

Dempsey, who will leave his post as Washington's top military official in October, met with Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon and Israeli chief of staff, Lieutenant General Gadi Eizenkot, in Tel Aviv on Tuesday.

"I cannot imagine a world in which these strong relations (between Israel and the U.S) didn't exist," Dempsey told Ya'alon prior to their meeting, according to a statement from the Defense Ministry.

The U.S. General said he and Eizenkot, his Israeli counterpart, speak nearly every month over the phone, and he had visited Israel five times since he landed on the job four years ago.

"The topics and challenges in the Middle East necessitate such relations. I am proud to be part of these strong relations, and I'm sure my successor will continue to strengthen them," Dempsey added.

Israeli Defense Minister Ya'alon told Dempsey he appreciates what he has done to strengthen defense and military cooperation between the two.

"We are all challenged by Jihadist forces in the region, in Syria, in Lebanon, the radical Shiite axis, the terror infrastructure in the Sinai peninsula and the Gaza Strip," Ya'alon said. "I believe Israel and the U.S. are on the same page on how to deal with these challenges," he added.

The Israeli Defense Minister also mentioned Iran, saying Israel is "concerned by Iran's role in the region" and its military ambitions once a nuclear deal is signed.

"We recognize Iran's fingerprints throughout the unrest in the Middle East. We are afraid the agreement would allow Iranian to rehabilitate their economy and boost its support in terror in the region and throughout the world," he added.

In a separate meeting with his Israel counterpart, Dempsey stressed the strong bond between the two countries' militaries, saying that Israel and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) "have no greater friend on earth than the U.S. military," according to a statement from the IDF spokesperson's unit.

Eizenkot told Dempsey that the cooperation between the armies intensified during his tenure. This is the first meeting between Eizenkot and Dempsey, as the former assumed his role in February.

Dempsey arrived in Israel on Monday for his last visit to the country, to bid farewell to his Israeli colleagues and hold discussions about security threats in the region, including the situation in Syria and Iraq and the fight against the expanding threat from Islamic State (IS) group. He is expected to make stops in other countries in the region after his Israel trip.

According to a report by the Ha'aretz daily, the U.S., Israeli, Greek and Italian air forces are supposed to carry out a wide-range drill in the upcoming months. Yet a strong military relationship cannot blanket the sharp differences between the two allies over the Iranian nuclear problem.

Israel, under the leadership of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has never been a fan of Washington's push for the nuclear deal that is being negotiated between Iran and other six world powers, while Washington insists that such a deal would be the best way to handle the Iranian nuclear issue. Enditem