United Nations: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Monday took a strong line against Iran, saying its nuclear ambitions put the world at risk and calling on the global community to hold Tehran to account.
Clinton said Iran "flouts the rules" and its defiance of the United Nations throws into jeopardy the world's efforts to rein in nuclear weapons.
Clinton said Monday that "violations must be punished, words must mean something" and called the international community's failure to enforce the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty unacceptable.
Earlier, Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad rejected allegations his country is developing nuclear weapons.
The Iranian leader said Washington has offered not "a single credible proof" that Tehran's uranium enrichment program is designed to produce bombs.
Clinton accused President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Monday of offering the same "tired, false and sometimes wild accusations" against the United States and others.
"Iran will do whatever it can to divert attention away from its own record in an attempt to evade accountability," Clinton said in a speech to a nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) conference at the United Nations, where the dispute over Iran's nuclear program has seized center stage.
She spoke on the first day of a monthlong conference to review the treaty.
