Kerry on Stephanopoulos: 'No daylight' between Israel, US

Nov. 25 (UPI) -- Secretary of State John Kerry affirmed the United States' commitment to standing with Israel in its security concerns in the wake of an historic deal with Iran.

In a visit with George Stephanopoulos on This Week Sunday, Kerry insisted there is "no daylight" between the U.S. and Israel, even as Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu slammed the six-month agreement which exchanges easing in sanctions on Iran for Iran agreeing to halt its nuclear program.

“Israel and the United States absolutely share the same goal here. There is no daylight between us, with respect to what we want to achieve at this point,” Kerry said. “We both want to make it certain Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. And Iran cannot be in a place where they can breakout and suddenly get that nuclear weapon.”

Kerry admitted that the deal was meant to be a test of good faith while the the P5+1 -- the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council plus Germany -- negotiated some of the more difficult issues with Iran.

“The deal is the beginning and first step. It leads us into the negotiation,” Kerry said. “So that we guarantee that while we are negotiating for the dismantling, while we are negotiating for the tougher positions, they will not grow their program and their capacity to threaten Israel. Israel will actually gain a larger breathing space in terms of the breakout capacity of Iran. It’s just clear.”

The deal, announced early Sunday morning from Geneva, offers a limited easing of sanctions on Iran for six months, in exchange for the end of all uranium enrichments beyond 5 percent, which will allow for nuclear power generation but comes nowhere near the enrichment level required for weaponization.

Iran is to allow daily inspections of its nuclear facilities, halt development of the Arak heavy water reactor for six months, and dilute its stockpile of its 20 percent enriched uranium. On the other side of the deal, there are to be no more calls for increased sanctions on Iran during the six-month period, meaning Kerry will have to convince Congress to cool its heels, even as some congressional leaders were highly critical of the deal.

Intelligence Committee ranking member Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., called the deal a mistake.

“I think you’re going to see a strong movement in the United States Senate to move ahead to tighten sanctions,” he said. “Now is just not the time to ease sanctions when they are working. We’ve got all the leverage in the negotiation and we’ve let them out of the trap."

[ABC] [CNN]