A whisper from across the Atlantic has turned into a roar. JD Vance, the Ohio senator and Trump’s running mate, is now the backchannel to Tehran. Sources inside the Trump campaign confirm he has been crafting a return to the ‘Maximum Pressure’ playbook, but with a twist: a new nuclear deal, on Trump’s terms.
This is not the 2015 JCPOA. This is a deal stripped of multilateralism, built on personal relationships and threats. Vance, a former Marine and venture capitalist, has no diplomatic track record. Yet he has been speaking directly to Iranian diplomats through intermediaries in the Gulf. The message: accept Trump’s terms or face the consequences.
For the UK, this is a nightmare. The Foreign Office spent years trying to repair relations after Trump’s 2018 withdrawal. Now, a potential Trump-Vance administration could bypass London entirely. Whitehall sources fear a repeat of the ‘special relationship’ being used as a rubber stamp, not a partnership.
Labour MPs are already mobilising. A backbench motion is being drafted to force a Commons debate on the UK’s role in any new talks. The concern is not just about Iran; it is about the precedent. If Vance is the architect, then the CIA and State Department have been sidelined. The UK would be dealing with a White House where foreign policy is run by the VP’s office.
One former ambassador put it bluntly: “We are back to square one. And square one is a very lonely place.”
