Row as Iran attends UN nuclear summit
Updated on 03 May 2010
Hillary Clinton has said Iran is in violation of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, as Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrives in New York ahead of a United Nations summit.
The United Nations is holding its five-yearly review to discuss the renewing of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT).
The treaty, signed in 1968 by 189 countries will have its commitment reaffirmed by its signature members at the review. However US Secretary of State has said she does not know why Iran's president is attending the review
"I don't know what he's (referring to Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad) showing up for because the purpose of the Non-proliferation Treaty Review Conference is to reiterate the commitment of the international community to the three goals: disarmament, non-proliferation, the peaceful uses of nuclear energy. So the vast majority of countries are coming to see what progress we can make."
Clinton said she doubted that Iran was coming to the review to say they're willing to abide by the treat.
She said: "I think they're coming to try to divert attention and confuse the issue. And there is no confusion. They have violated the terms of the NPT.
"They have been held under all kinds of restrictions and obligations that they have not complied with by the IAEA, the International Atomic Energy Agency, by the UN Security Council.
"So we're not going to permit Iran to try to change the story from their failure to comply and in any way upset the efforts we are in the midst of, which is to get the international community to adopt a strong Security Council resolution that further isolates them and imposes consequences for their behaviour."
There are currently eight declared nuclear powers - up from the original five - with India, Pakistan, and North Korea joining the U.S, Russia, UK, France and China.
Israel is reportedly a nuclear state but has not officially declared this, and while the 1995 review conference extended the NPT treaty indefinitely, India remains a non-signatory.
Last month 47 countries participated in a global Nuclear Security Summit hosted by President Barack Obama to discuss preventing acts of nuclear terrorism.
Also last month, U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed a new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START II), cutting the number of long-range nuclear weapons each country can deploy by almost a third.
