The chairman of U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff sought to reassure Israel on Tuesday of “unshakable” U.S. military support, despite deep strains in political relations over the prospect of a U.S.-led nuclear deal with Iran and differences over Israeli-Palestinian diplomacy, Reuters reported.

General Martin Dempsey, on a visit to Israel, also claimed he shared a core Israeli fear of sanctions relief for Iran.

“My assessment is that I share their concern. If the deal is reached and results in sanctions relief ... it’s my expectation that it’s not all going to flow into their economy,” he said.

“I think that they will invest in their surrogates. I think they will invest in additional military capability,” Dempsey told a small group of reporters in Jerusalem.

But Dempsey said the long-term prospects were “far better” with an Iran that was not a nuclear weapons power. He reassured Israeli officials that Washington would work to mitigate Iran-related risks, with or without a deal.

After 12 years of inspections the UN nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, has found no shred of evidence that Iran’s nuclear program has had military dimensions.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has presented the planned nuclear deal as a threat to Israel. U.S. President Barack Obama, addressing Israeli television last week, renewed his assertion that a deal would do a better job than air strikes in preventing Iran from becoming a nuclear weapons power, an ambition Iran vehemently denies.

As the end-June deadline for an Iran nuclear deal approaches, Dempsey said the United States and Israel had to be prepared for either success or failure in the talks.

“If a deal is made, we’ve got work to do. If a deal is not made, we’ve got work to do,” Dempsey said.

“And I think we’ve built up enough trust and confidence in each other – military to military – that we’re prepared to do that work.”

Israeli War Minister Moshe Yaalon also said on Tuesday that Washington’s supply of advanced arms to Persian Gulf Arab states to deter Iran could eventually challenge Israel’s U.S.-backed regional military supremacy, if not addressed.

Despite claims of Iranian threat to regional Arab countries Tehran has been insisting that it is seeking friendship with all regional states including the Persian Gulf Arab states