Trump threatens strike on Pickaxe Mountain, likely nuclear site

Israeli intelligence believes Iran relocated parts of its nuclear program to the Pickaxe Mountain facility following last year’s conflict.

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

President Donald Trump said Tuesday that the United States could strike Iran’s Pickaxe Mountain facility “pretty soon” after an Israeli report said the underground site was being used to house centrifuges linked to Tehran’s nuclear program.

Speaking during a White House meeting with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, Trump dismissed the significance of the site unless it contained nuclear material.

“It doesn’t mean anything unless they have the material. They don’t have — we follow the material, that’s where the action is,” the president said.

“We’ll be hitting that area very, probably pretty soon. And there’s not a thing they can do about it. You know, normally I wouldn’t say that. If I thought they could do something about it, I would never say that. But we’ll be hitting that area pretty soon, and very heavily,” Trump continued.

Trump made a similar comment last week during an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, saying the United States would “probably give Pickaxe a shot relatively soon.”

The facility is located about a mile south of Natanz in central Iran and was declared to the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency in 2020 as a future site for assembling centrifuges used to produce nuclear fuel.

Israeli intelligence believes Iran relocated parts of its nuclear program to the Pickaxe Mountain facility following last year’s conflict, as US and Iranian forces continue to exchange strikes.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Israeli intelligence concluded Iran transferred centrifuges to the Pickaxe Mountain, or Mount Kolang Gaz La, facility last fall after the 12-day war in June, during which US and Israeli strikes targeted Iran’s three main nuclear sites.

The underground complex lies about 220 kilometers south of Tehran and roughly 2 kilometers from the Natanz nuclear complex. The facility is built approximately 90 to 137 meters (300 to 450 feet) beneath solid rock. US and Israeli intelligence agencies have observed sustained truck traffic, tunnel reinforcement work and expanded security around the site.

It remains unclear whether Iran has established a fully operational uranium enrichment facility inside the mountain. Experts believe the complex could instead be used to store equipment that survived previous strikes or to covertly pursue weapons-grade nuclear material.