Mike Pence, President Donald Trump’s first vice president, hammered the current administration on Fox News on Wednesday over its deal with Iran. Pence spoke with anchor John Roberts and lambasted the emerging deal as the kind of Obama-style “appeasement” the first Trump administration fought against.

“I do have concerns about the memorandum of understanding now that we see it, and the terms about what’s in it — and also what’s not in it — suggest to me that it does smack of the kind of appeasement that our administration rejected in the Obama-Iran nuclear deal, and also, as Joe Biden attempted to return to the politics of appeasement during his administration,” Pence told Roberts, adding:

I mean, here’s the elements of it. Number one: what’s not in it? There’s no specific commitment to the verifiable dismantling of their nuclear weapons program that they’ve pursued for decades. There’s no commitment in the MOU for the dismantling of their ballistic missile program. There is no commitment to end supporting terrorist proxies that have wreaked havoc, claimed 1,000 American service members’ lives. That’s what’s not in it.

But what’s in it that’s concerning to me is, first and foremost, we end a blockade that has put enormous pressure and brought them around to the table. Secondly, my understanding is that if this agreement is signed tomorrow, there will be an immediate lifting of economic sanctions on the sale of oil. That could mean $3 billion a year directly into the coffers of the regime. And what do you think they’ll do with that money? Well, money’s fungible — they can do whatever they want with it, and without those other undertakings, we don’t know: build more missiles, build more drones.

The second piece, though, is $100 billion in frozen assets. If you read the MOU, it actually suggests that if there is progress in the negotiations themselves — even before a deal is done — some of those unfrozen assets could be released to Iran. And lastly, the $300 billion deal that you all were just unpacking from overseas: the United States makes a commitment here to arrange for other countries in the region to make those resources available.

Look, bottom line, I don’t trust the Iranians. I agree with Hugh Hewitt in that regard. I’ve had too much dealing with them in my years in the Situation Room and in my years on Capitol Hill on the Foreign Affairs Committee. There’s the old saying that goes, “Trust but verify.” But when it comes to the mullahs in Tehran, we need to verify, verify, and then trust — verify that they’re dismantling this nuclear program, dismantling the bombs, abandoning terrorist proxies — or we’ve got to stay at the negotiating table.

“Or you could go so far as to say, ‘Never trust, always verify,” Roberts added.

“I would say that as well, John,” Pence agreed.

“There was one aspect of this memorandum of understanding read to us earlier today — just about an hour ago — by a senior administration official that I found puzzling, because we hadn’t heard this before,” Roberts noted, adding:

We’ve heard it from the Iranians, we heard it a little bit from the Omanis: that for 60 days, the Strait of Hormuz will be open to free, unencumbered shipping. But then, after that 60-day period, Iran, Oman, and other Gulf countries can enter into talks about some sort of administration of the Strait of Hormuz that could end up in fees being charged. Now, the senior administration official — not the president — dismissed that idea, saying Gulf nations would never agree to that. But there’s still a provision in there for these talks to happen.

“Well, the specific language in the MOU is something to the effect of ‘will facilitate commerce.’ How they do that… they say ‘ensure commerce’ in this. They don’t say whether they’re going to charge tolls or whether there’s going to be fees. What we need to demand is the restoration of the freedom of navigation that existed in the Strait of Hormuz before shots were fired here,” Pence replied, adding:

And that’s why I really do believe, John — and look, I was encouraged that the president only said today that it’s most likely that we will sign the deal — if I was at his side, as I was for four and a half years, I would urge the president to take a step back, keep that blockade in effect, go back to the negotiating table, and tell the Iranians, “Here’s the deal: we won, you lost. If we need to prove that further to you, our armed forces are capable of doing that.”

But demand — we need a commitment that your nuclear program is going to be dismantled and abandoned, your ballistic missile program dismantled and abandoned, that you are no longer going to support Hamas and Hezbollah and terrorist groups across the region. Freedom of navigation. If we don’t have those commitments, John, I really do believe that we should unleash the armed forces of the United States and Israel, open the strait, end the threat the Iranian regime poses, give the Iranian people an opportunity for freedom — and do it all on our turn.

Watch the clip above via Fox News.

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