FOREIGN POLICY RESULTS REPORT – AT 8:18 A.M. ET:  Another exciting report noting the results of President Obama's brave outreach to a misunderstood world, in marked contrast to George W. Bush's coarse, American-style realism, which creates all the wars and also increases ice cream stains on white shirts:

Russia has announced that it will start loading uranium fuel into the nuclear reactor of the Bushehr nuclear power station in Iran on August 21, a spokesman for Russia's state atomic cooperation reportedly told Reuters Friday.

According to the report, the spokesperson was quoted as saying that the addition of fuel will be crucial to initiating the country's first nuclear reactor, although it will not become operational.

In a telephone conversation Rosatom spokesman Sergei Novikov said, "The fuel will be loaded on Aug 21. This is the start of the physical launch (of the reactor)."

"From that moment the Bushehr plant will be officially considered a nuclear-energy installation," he told The Associated Press.

The United States has called for Russia to delay the startup until Iran proves that it's not developing nuclear weapons. Russian officials said that the latest UN sanctions against Iran won't affect the Bushehr project.

COMMENT:  The Obama administration calls on the Russians to do many things, and we're generally ignored.  That, increasingly, seems to be the case around the world.  I guess all that classroom stuff about reaching out, smiling, and apologizing for the Rocky Mountains being rocky hasn't exactly cut it.

August 13, 2010