Former Vice President Mike Pence issued a pointed warning Thursday to the Trump administration's negotiating team: do not walk into Pakistan this weekend and come out with another version of the Obama-era Iran nuclear deal. Speaking on "Fox & Friends," Pence said the upcoming talks represent a chance to force Iran's unconditional surrender of its nuclear weapons program, and cautioned that anything less would repeat the failures of the last two Democratic administrations.
Vice President JD Vance and special envoy Steve Witkoff are headed to Pakistan for what Fox News reported would be the highest-level direct talks between Washington and Tehran since 1979. The meeting follows a fragile two-week ceasefire President Trump announced Tuesday and comes amid signals from both sides that a diplomatic window may exist, however narrow.
Pence's message was clear: leverage is not the same as a deal, and a bad deal is worse than no deal at all. The former vice president laid out three non-negotiable demands he believes the administration must press: Iran must abandon its nuclear weapons program unconditionally, reopen the Strait of Hormuz, and end its support for regional proxy forces.
Pence framed his remarks around the contrast between the Trump and Biden approaches to Iran. He reminded viewers that he and Trump withdrew from the Obama-era nuclear agreement and imposed a maximum pressure campaign during their first term, a campaign he said Biden dismantled almost immediately upon taking office.
Pence told Fox News:
"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 word, appeasement, carries weight in conservative foreign-policy circles. It frames the Obama and Biden Iran strategies not as diplomacy but as capitulation, a distinction Pence clearly wanted to plant before Vance and Witkoff sit down across from Iranian officials.
Vance has been stepping into an increasingly visible public role within the administration, and the Pakistan talks represent one of the most consequential diplomatic tests of his tenure so far. The vice president spoke to reporters Wednesday before boarding Air Force Two at Budapest's Ferenc Liszt International Airport, where he described the state of negotiations as being in a "good spot."
Vance pointed to the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and the ceasefire as signs of Iranian good faith. But he paired that optimism with a hard edge, telling reporters that any breach of commitments would be met with "serious consequences."
He also acknowledged the weight of American leverage in the situation. Vance said the administration holds significant tools at its disposal and does not want the Iranian people to suffer, but made clear that those tools remain on the table.
"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. It's why I think it's so important for the Iranians to be negotiators in good faith."
That framing, leverage paired with restraint, suggests the administration is trying to walk a line between the hawkish wing of the party, which Pence represents, and a pragmatic desire to secure a deal that Trump can present as a diplomatic achievement. The overnight ceasefire negotiations that preceded this weekend's formal talks show how quickly events have been moving.
Pence's warning is not abstract. The 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the Obama-era nuclear deal, remains a defining fault line in Republican foreign policy. Critics on the right argued it gave Iran billions in sanctions relief while leaving the regime's missile program and regional aggression untouched. The Trump administration withdrew from the agreement in 2018, and Pence has been vocal ever since about the dangers of returning to that framework.
What makes Pence's intervention notable is the timing. He is not issuing a retrospective critique of a deal that already collapsed. He is warning, in real time, that the same mistakes could be repeated under a Republican administration, his own party's administration, if negotiators accept anything short of full denuclearization.
Pence said he believes Trump has created the conditions for a diplomatic solution but stressed that the military must stand behind any agreement to give it teeth.
"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."
The former vice president praised recent U.S. military successes and argued that force, or the credible threat of it, is the only language Tehran respects. He urged the negotiation team to draw a firm line and hold Iran accountable in the months and years ahead, not just at the signing ceremony.
Vance's growing stature within the GOP, he currently leads early 2028 straw polls, means the outcome of these talks will shape not just the administration's foreign-policy legacy but Vance's own political future. A strong deal cements his credentials. A weak one hands critics a weapon.
Strip away the diplomatic language and Pence is making a straightforward argument: the United States finally has Iran in a corner, and this is not the moment to settle for half-measures. He wants unconditional abandonment of the nuclear program, not a phased timeline. He wants the Strait of Hormuz open, not conditionally navigable. He wants Iran's proxy networks dismantled, not paused.
Whether Vance and Witkoff share that maximalist position remains unclear. Vance's public comments suggest he is open to negotiation and sees genuine Iranian willingness to talk. Pence's comments suggest he fears that openness could slide into concession.
Pence has remained active on the international stage even out of office. Fox News noted that he delivered remarks at a September 6, 2025, demonstration in Brussels organized by the National Council of Resistance of Iran, a group that opposes the current Iranian regime. That appearance underscores his long-standing hawkish posture on Tehran.
The vice president's growing portfolio of high-profile assignments, from domestic investigations to international diplomacy, means the Pakistan talks carry personal stakes for Vance as well as strategic ones for the country.
Several questions remain unanswered heading into the weekend. What terms are formally on the table? What verification mechanisms, if any, will the U.S. demand? And what happens when the two-week ceasefire expires if no broader agreement materializes?
The media spotlight on Vance has been intense, with coverage ranging from policy to personal attacks on his family from left-leaning commentators. None of that noise changes what matters this weekend: whether American negotiators walk into Pakistan with the kind of resolve that turns leverage into lasting results.
Pence's prayer, as he put it, is that the team draws a line and holds it. That is the right instinct. The Obama deal proved that a nuclear agreement without enforcement teeth and without full denuclearization is not a solution, it is a delay. Biden's return to appeasement proved that reversing maximum pressure only emboldens the regime.
Trump built the leverage. The question now is whether his team spends it wisely or trades it away for a headline.
