U.S. NOT HAPPY WITH IRAN NUCLEAR OFFER - AT 8:23 P.M. ET:  There was really nothing else the U.S. could have said.  From AP:

A senior Obama administration official on Saturday said the White House was unhappy with remarks by Iranian Foreign Minister Manochehr Mottaki's remarks, who said Iran accepted the West's nuclear fuel proposal, but according to its own timetable.

"Iran's proposal today does not appear to be consistent with the fair and balanced draft agreement proposed by the IAEA in consultation with the United States, Russia, and France," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the US has yet to formulate an official response to the development.

In Bahrain on Saturday, Mottaki said that Iran is ready to exchange the bulk of its stockpile of enriched uranium for nuclear fuel rods - as proposed by the UN - but according to its own mechanisms and timetable.

COMMENT:  I'm getting a sense from the murmurs coming out of Washington that Obama has already decided on a tough line in January, in part, as we wrote earlier today, to buck up his image.  But the question is whether other countries will follow him.  That will be the key test of his diplomacy.

December 12, 2009