UN official urges Iran to sign nuclear test ban treaty
None
The head of the U.N.'s nuclear test ban treaty organization says Iran should follow up on its historic nuclear deal with world powers by ratifying the treaty and assuring it will never conduct a nuclear test explosion.
Lassina Zerbo said in an interview Friday with The Associated Press that if Iran doesn't ratify the treaty, "it will leave room for the doubt that people have put in this deal and the good intentions of Iran."
Zerbo said Iran should have signed the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, known as the CTBT, before negotiations started on the deal to rein in its nuclear program, in order to give assurances to critics that it has no intention to develop nuclear weapons -- and that there is a religious prohibition, or "fatwa," against possessing them, issued in 2013 by Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
