(VOVworld) - The head of the UN'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. Lassina Zerbo said in an interview on Friday that 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.

Executive Secretary of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Lassina Zerbo (Photo: AP)

The CTBT organization has 196 member states — 183 have signed the treaty and 164 have ratified it. But the treaty has not entered into force because it still needs ratification by eight countries involved in originally negotiating it: Iran, Israel, Egypt, India, Pakistan, North Korea, the United States and China.

If Iran ratifies the treaty, Zerbo said, it would create the conditions in the Middle East for easier ratifications.