Saudi Nuclear Proposal

Saudi King Abdullah's proposal to end the standoff between Iran and the United States can't be faulted for its lack of imagination. Whether it'll get very far is another matter since Iranian President Ahmadinejad pronounced the nuclear issue closed last month in a speech to the United Nations General Assembly. The Saudi plan calls for the creation of "a consortium for all users of enriched uranium" for nuclear power plants. The plan comes a day before representatives from the UN Security Council plus Germany meet in London to discuss additional sanctions.
I doubt the Iranians will eagerly embrace this proposal; indeed, President Ahmadinejad was in top diplomatic form earlier today in comments about sanctions directed at Europe: "You know that we are able to react. In the economy, you need us more than we do you."
Iran has deftly exploited the American presence in the trap that is Iraq. That can't come as much of a surprise, particularly with the most belligerent American government in history issuing threats on a near-daily basis.
However the Saudi plan is received by Iran, the United States ought still to pursue--and should have been pursuing--negotiations with them. No one has ever lost a thing by talking and nowhere is it written that a nation somehow disarms itself by entering discussions with another. It's a peculiar notion, isn't it, that we would be weakened by negotiating?