UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Wednesday he was worried about the fate of a global pact banning nuclear tests and urged the United States, Iran, China and other hold-outs to sign and ratify it.
The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) opened for signatures 12 years ago. Since then, 179 nations have signed and 144 ratified it. Missing are nine states with nuclear activities, whose ratification is required.
"The (CTBT) has achieved near universal adherence," Ban told a meeting of 40 foreign ministers on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. The ministers agreed a joint statement appealing to hold-out countries to ratify the pact. "Despite the progress that has been made, the CTBT has still not entered into force," Ban said. "This is cause for serious concern."
Echoing the ministers, he urged "all governments that have not yet done so to sign and ratify the treaty without delay." The United States signed the treaty in 1996 during the administration of President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, but the then-Republican-majority US Senate rejected it 1999.
William Perry, the US defence secretary at the time Washington signed the treaty, said he thought the next president, whether Republican Senator John McCain or Democratic Senator Barack Obama, will send it back to the Senate for ratification.
"I believe that has a good probability of changing with the new president of the United States," Perry told reporters. Washington is joined by China, North Korea, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Israel and Pakistan as hold-out countries whose ratification is necessary for the treaty to enter into force.