The U.S. secretary of state said she came to the conference "with sincere and serious proposals to advance the fundamental aims of the NPT and strengthen the global nonproliferation regime."

This contrasted with the Iranian president's list of changes he proposed to change the treaty into the nuclear disarmament NPT.

Clinton said, "The vast majority of states are living up to their nonproliferation obligations. But a few outliers have demonstrated a determination to violate the rules and defy the international community. During the past decade, one state said it was withdrawing from the NPT after being caught cheating and subsequently announced two nuclear tests."

"Another has cynically claimed to be abiding by the treaty while violating its safeguards, expanding its enrichment program, failing to cooperate with the IAEA and ignoring the injunctions of the Security Council," she added, first referring to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and then to Iran.

"Iran's president offered the same tired, false, and sometimes wild accusations against the United States and other parties," she said.

"As the secretary-general said, in this regard, the onus is on Iran," Clinton said. "So far, it has failed to meet its burden. Iran is the only country represented in this hall that has been found by the IAEA board of governors to be currently in noncompliance with its nuclear safeguard obligations."