Former Vice President Mike Pence delivered a pointed warning to the Trump administration Thursday, cautioning Vice President JD Vance and special envoy Steve Witkoff against repeating what he called the diplomatic failures of the Obama and Biden years as the two officials prepared to travel to Pakistan for the highest-level U.S.-Iran talks since 1979.
Appearing on "Fox & Friends," Pence framed the weekend negotiations as a make-or-break moment, one that could either dismantle Iran's nuclear ambitions or produce another toothless agreement that Tehran exploits while the West looks away.
The talks follow President Donald Trump's announcement Tuesday of a fragile two-week ceasefire, a development that has opened a narrow diplomatic window even as skeptics question whether Iran's regime will negotiate honestly. Fox News Digital reported Pence's remarks alongside Vance's own comments to reporters before boarding Air Force Two at Budapest's Ferenc Liszt International Airport on Wednesday.
Pence left no ambiguity about what he believes the U.S. delegation must demand. He told Fox News:
"The last thing we want is another Iran nuclear deal."
He then laid out the history as he sees it, a history that ought to haunt every American diplomat who sits across the table from Tehran this weekend.
"The president and I got out of that deal back during our administration. We put a maximum pressure campaign on. Biden immediately returned to office and went back to the politics of appeasement."
That sequence, withdraw, pressure, then reverse, is the core of Pence's complaint. The Trump-Pence administration pulled out of the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action and imposed crippling sanctions. The Biden administration, Pence argued, dropped maximum pressure and returned to appeasement. Now, with Trump back in office and leverage restored, Pence wants the administration to finish what it started rather than settle for a deal that lets Iran keep its options open.
Pence outlined three non-negotiable demands he said Vance and Witkoff must put on the table: the unconditional abandonment of Iran's nuclear weapons program, the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, and an end to Tehran's support for regional proxies.
He also insisted the U.S. military must stand ready to act if Iran breaks its word, a condition that separates a serious agreement from a piece of paper.
"President Trump has reversed that and created the conditions where I think we have a pathway to a diplomatic solution, but we've got to have the sheer, incredible force of the United States of America and our allies behind us to enforce it."
Vance, speaking to reporters in Budapest before departing for Pakistan, struck a measured tone. He described the state of negotiations as being in a "good spot" and pointed to the reopening of the strait and the ceasefire as early signs of good faith from Tehran.
But the vice president also made clear that Washington's patience has limits. He said any breach of Iran's commitments would be met with "serious consequences." Vance has taken a leading role in the administration's Iran diplomacy, and the weekend talks will test whether that effort produces results or merely buys Tehran time.
Vance framed the leverage plainly:
"We obviously don't want the people of Iran to suffer, but we have a lot of leverage that the President of the United States could use."
He added a note that read more like a warning than reassurance:
"It's why I think it's so important for the Iranians to be negotiators in good faith."
The implication was hard to miss. Good faith from Tehran is not a hope, it is a condition. And the alternative is not another round of diplomacy.
Pence's warning carries weight precisely because the Obama-era Iran deal remains one of the most consequential, and most criticized, foreign policy decisions of the last two decades. Conservatives have long argued that the 2015 agreement gave Iran billions in sanctions relief while leaving its ballistic missile program untouched and its regional proxy network intact. The deal's sunset clauses meant that even its nuclear restrictions would eventually expire, handing Tehran a patient path to the bomb.
The Biden administration's eagerness to re-enter negotiations only deepened conservative distrust. Pence's charge, that Biden "went back to the politics of appeasement", reflects a view widely held on the right that Democratic administrations treat Iran as a negotiating partner rather than an adversary.
Now, with Vance and Witkoff heading into talks that have already faced complications, the question is whether the Trump administration will hold firm on the demands Pence described, or whether the pull of a headline-grabbing deal will soften the terms.
Pence praised what he called recent military successes, though he did not detail specific operations. His broader point was structural: diplomacy without credible force behind it is just conversation. Iran's leaders have watched American presidents make threats and walk away before. The only language that changes their calculus, Pence argued, is the visible willingness to use American military power.
That argument aligns with the administration's broader posture. Trump has signaled willingness to restructure alliance commitments around the Iran campaign, and the two-week ceasefire itself was announced from the White House, a reminder that the president views these talks as his to direct.
Pence's prayer, his word, was specific:
"My prayer is, as the vice president and our negotiation team [goes to Pakistan], is that they draw that line and say, 'That's what we need you to agree to.' We hold them to that deal in the months and years ahead."
The emphasis on holding Iran accountable "in the months and years ahead" is the part that matters most. Any deal can look good on the day it is signed. The Obama deal looked good to its architects, too, until Iran tested its limits and the West declined to push back.
Strip away the diplomatic language and Pence's message is simple: don't get played. Iran has spent more than four decades perfecting the art of buying time through negotiation while advancing its strategic goals on the ground. The regime signs agreements it intends to bend. It makes promises it plans to reinterpret. And it counts on Western leaders who want a deal more than they want enforcement.
Pence delivered similar remarks at a demonstration organized by the National Council of Resistance of Iran in Brussels on September 6, 2025, underscoring that his position is not a one-off media hit but a sustained public campaign aimed at shaping the administration's approach.
Vance, for his part, has shown a willingness to speak bluntly in public on a range of issues. Whether that directness translates into hard-nosed demands behind closed doors in Pakistan will determine whether these talks produce something the Obama deal never did: an agreement with teeth.
The ceasefire is fragile. The leverage is real but perishable. And the lessons of the last failed Iran deal are written in plain English for anyone willing to read them.
Pence is right about one thing above all: the worst outcome is not failed talks. The worst outcome is a deal America cannot enforce, signed for the cameras and broken behind closed doors.
