Israel Links Ratifying Nuclear Test Ban to Iran Ties

Israel wants Iranian recognition before it ratifies an international ban on nuclear bomb tests, an Israeli official said on Wednesday, in a rare public discussion of terms for upgrading from signatory status. Merav Zafary-Odiz, Israel's ambassador to the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency in Vienna, told Tel Aviv University's Institute for National Security Studies in a speech, "Negotiated in the 1990s, the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) enjoys wide global support but must be ratified by eight more nuclear technology states among them Israel, Iran, Egypt and the United States to come into force. It will do when the time is ripe, when certain considerations are met."