The Iran nuclear deal being promoted by President Obama comes with an additional hidden tax of $36 million to watch the terror-nation’s nuclear program, according to a bipartisan budget analysis.
At $50 million, that is nearly three times, or 257 percent, more than the $14 million the United Nation’s spends now on Iran nuclear surveillance, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center.
What’s more: The International Atomic Energy Agency doesn’t even have enough experienced inspectors and will likely have to call some out of retirement to keep an eagle eye on Tehran, said the report from analyst Jessica Michek.
Under the agreement, she wrote, the number of inspectors needed on the “IAEA’s Iran Task Force” is set to jump from 50 to 150.
“To implement the interim agreement, the IAEA reportedly had to bring former inspectors back from retirement — it is unclear where the agency will find the manpower to carry out its increased workload in Iran while maintaining its verification programs around the world. If the IAEA’s expanded workload and additional inspectors increase costs in a manner similar to the interim agreement, implementing the [agreement] may cost $3 million a month in addition to the IAEA’s regular budget, or $36 million more a year,” wrote Michek.
It is unclear where the money is going to come from. The U.S. already pays $1.8 million into the inspection fund and the agency has had to go begging for more money before the Iran deal was cut.
But since U.S. taxpayers already pay for 25 percent of the overall IAEA budget of some $386 million, it can be assumed that they will be paying at least that percentage more for the Iran inspections.
Obama and some Democrats have been lobbying for the deal to House and Senate members. The deal would eliminated trade, economic and arms sanctions on Iran once they give up their nuclear weapon program.
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected].
