JAN. 4 – Israel Radio is reporting this morning that France has rejected Iran’s ultimatum to the West that it has to accept Iran’s counterproposal to a United Nations’ brokered deal aimed at slowing the Iranian nuclear program.

The report cites the French foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, who told RTL Radio, “We are not the ones who have to decide whether to accept what they want to impose on us. No, this is not the way it is done.”

Iran has threatened to begin enriching its nuclear fuel stockpile on its own at the end of January.