Report: IAEA chief says efforts to curb Iran nuke program 'a failure'

Efforts by the international community to isolate Iran in hopes of curbing its nuclear weapons program have failed, the head of the United Nations watchdog told the Los Angeles Times on Saturday.

Mohamed ElBaradei, the director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, told the newspaper that the sanctions regime imposed by members of the United Nations Security Council has not prevented the Islamic republic from accumulating technology and know-how that could be used to build atomic weapons.

"We haven't really moved one inch toward addressing the issues," ElBaradei, an Egyptian diplomat and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, told the LA Times. "I think so far the policy has been a failure."

ElBaradei encouraged world leaders to broaden their focus on issues that are not strictly related to defense and security, like poverty and the prevention of diseases like HIV and AIDS. Nuclear proliferation "is the tip of the iceberg," the IAEA chief told the LA Times.

ElBaradei said the election of Barack Obama as president gave him "lots of hope" due to his stated goal of pursuing a policy that would eliminate nuclear stockpiles as well as his perceived reliance on diplomacy to solve critical global issues, the LA Times reported.

"He is ready to talk to his adversaries, enemies, if you like, including Iran, also [North] Korea," he told the newspaper. "To continue to pound the table and say, 'I am not going to talk to you,' and act in a sort of a very condescending way - that exaggerates problems."