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A lower court in Frankfurt refused to try the case on the grounds that it was unlikely that Iran had a nuclear program at the time of the defendant's activities in 2007, citing the NIE report as evidence.

That's why the Supreme Court judges had to rule first on the question of whether that program exists at all. Having answered that question in the affirmative, the court had to rule next on the likelihood of the defendant to be found guilty in a trial. The supreme court's conclusions are unusually strong.

"The results of the investigation do in fact provide sufficient indications that the accused aided the development of nuclear weapons in Iran through business dealings."

The case itself sheds light on how these networks function. According to the supreme court judges, the businessman has brokered "industrial machines, equipment and raw materials primarily to Iranian customers," for Iran's nuclear weapons program.

According to the same decision, the defendant's business partners in Tehran "dealt with acquiring military and nuclear-related goods for Iran and used various front companies, headquartered for example in Dubai and the United Arab Emirates, to circumvent existing trade restrictions." According to the judges, Mohsen V. also tried to supply to Tehran via front companies in Dubai "Geiger counters for radiation-resistant detectors constructed especially for protection against the effects of nuclear detonations."

The president, who said voter turnout was 85 percent, said opponents "did not provide even one piece of document regarding irregularities or vote fraud."

Without specifically mentioning the post-election violence, Ahmadinejad said criticism of government "is the key to the success of a nation."

And noting the unrest in Iran since the disputed June presidential election, she added: "We have seen in the last weeks that Iran has not respected its own democracy."

"It has taken actions against his own citizens for peacefully protesting," she said, referring to street demonstrations challenging the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

"I think it is not a very smart position to ally with a regime that is being rejected by so many of their own people," Clinton said in the interview.

The administration of President Barack Obama, Clinton added, thinks "it is not in the best interest" of the world to be doing business with Iran that would "promote the regime... that is not smart."

The South American country's strongman leader Hugo Chavez, a fierce US critic, is Iran's main ally in the region. Chavez has defended Ahmadinejad numerous times in recent weeks.

"We call on the world to respect Iran because there are attempts to undermine the strength of the Iranian revolution," Chavez said last month after the election.

The United States has returned its ambassador to Caracas after almost a year without official diplomatic relations between the countries.

"We are trying to lower the temperature," Clinton said. "We want to make it clear that there are ways for us to have a conversation with people we don't agree with on many issues."