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Summary
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Monday blasted Iran over its failure to address international concerns over its controversial nuclear program, stressing that the international community must hold Teheran responsible for its actions.Clinton told international delegates attending the opening session of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) review conference at the UN headquarters in New York that Iran's continued defiance of UN resolutions on its nuclear program has offset the international efforts aimed at reducing the number of nuclear weapons in the world.Clinton accused Iran of using the same tired, false and sometimes wild accusations against the US and its allies to shift international attention away from its disputed nuclear program, stressing that Iran will do whatever it can to divert attention away from its own record in an attempt to evade accountability.Iran is the only country represented in this hall that has been found by the IAEA board of governors to be currently in non-compliance with its nuclear safeguard obligations, Clinton said. It has defied the U.N. Security Council and the IAEA and placed the future of the non-proliferation regime in jeopardy, and that is why it is facing increasing isolation and pressure from the international community.Iran will not succeed in its efforts to divert and divide. The United States and the great majority of the nations represented here come to this conference with a much larger agenda, Clinton said. Now is the time to build consensus, not to block it.Clinton also told the conference that the United States would contribute $50 million to advance the ongoing efforts of the IAEA, UN's nuclear watchdog, to promote peaceful uses of nuclear energy in developing countries.Her remarks came just hours after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told the conference that the United States and its other nuclear-armed allies were threatening non-nuclear states from developing peaceful nuclear technology.
