Trump warns Iran ‘not to get cute’ or US will bomb Pickaxe Mountain nuke facility

President Trump says new activity has been detected at the Pickaxe Mountain nuclear facility, warns Iran to halt operations at the site or face major strike.

By World Israel News Staff

President Donald Trump warned Iran that the United States could launch a major strike against the deeply buried Pickaxe Mountain nuclear complex after detecting renewed activity at the site.

Speaking Wednesday night at the Republican midterm convention in Dallas, Trump said US intelligence was closely watching the underground complex near the damaged Natanz uranium enrichment facility.

“We notice there’s a little activity at Pickaxe. I would advise Iran not to get cute, because we will have to hit them very hard,” Trump said.

The warning came the same day a new satellite imagery analysis found a sharp increase in construction activity at Pickaxe Mountain during 2026.

The Center for Strategic and International Studies said six years of satellite data showed the site moving away from major excavation and toward what analysts believe is likely internal construction and further fortification.

The think tank found more activity on the site’s roads this year than at any previous point it examined.

Recent imagery showed hardened tunnel entrances, paved internal roads, reinforcement around access points and the removal of excavated material.

CSIS said the pattern was consistent with a facility transitioning toward internal construction, although it stressed that the imagery alone cannot establish exactly what Iran is building underground.

The site, known in Farsi as Kuh-e Kolang Gaz La, is located roughly two kilometers south of Natanz and consists of deeply buried tunnels constructed inside a granite mountain. Iran began developing the underground complex following the 2020 sabotage of an aboveground centrifuge assembly facility at Natanz.

Israeli intelligence reportedly told the United States that Iran moved centrifuges and centrifuge components into Pickaxe Mountain in 2025.

CSIS said its satellite analysis could neither confirm nor disprove that intelligence assessment and noted that current imagery does not clearly show the security and vehicle activity that would normally be expected from an operating uranium enrichment facility.

The International Atomic Energy Agency has sought information about the site and requested access, but Iran has not provided inspectors with access to the complex, according to the CSIS analysis.

Trump has repeatedly threatened to attack Pickaxe Mountain if Washington concludes that Iran is using it to restore nuclear capabilities damaged in previous strikes.

In July, Trump said the United States knew what was happening at the facility and was prepared to act if a diplomatic agreement was not reached.

“I know exactly what’s going on at Pickaxe,” Trump said at the time. “We took out their nuclear sites and we’ll have to take out Pickaxe if we don’t make a deal.”

He again warned last week that Washington “may hit Pickaxe very soon” if evidence emerged of prohibited activity there.

Pickaxe Mountain was not attacked during the June 2025 US strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities or during subsequent rounds of fighting, leaving it as one of Iran’s most significant nuclear-related installations still intact.

Its depth and geological protection could make it considerably more difficult to destroy than previously targeted facilities.

CSIS analysts said even the GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator — the most powerful conventional US bunker-busting bomb — could have difficulty destroying the complex outright because of its depth beneath granite rock.

A military attack could damage or temporarily disable it, they said, but may not permanently eliminate the facility.

Trump’s warning also came as international pressure on Tehran over its nuclear activities intensified.

On Wednesday, the IAEA’s 35-member Board of Governors voted to report Iran to the UN Security Council over its failure to comply with nuclear safeguards obligations, the first such referral in two decades.

The resolution passed with 23 countries in favor, while Russia, China and Niger opposed it.

Iran maintains that its nuclear program is intended exclusively for peaceful purposes and says the continuing conflict has prevented normal cooperation with international inspectors.

Western governments have expressed particular concern about Tehran’s stockpile of uranium enriched to 60%, a level far above that normally required for civilian nuclear power and relatively close to weapons-grade enrichment.

Trump has described preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon as the central objective of the US campaign.

“For 51 years, people have been trying to, and other Presidents have been trying to talk them out of it, but they don’t understand talk, these people,” Trump told the Dallas convention. “They only understand one thing, and that’s they’re getting plenty of it.”

The president also predicted Wednesday that the wider conflict with Iran would end shortly after the November 3 midterm elections, claiming Tehran is attempting to prolong the war in hopes that Republicans lose control of Congress.

“I think the war will end immediately after the election,” Trump said, adding that Iran “can’t hold out any longer.”

Trump accused Tehran of being “desperate to try and affect the election so that we could get a nice, weak group of people in there and leave them alone and let them have their nuclear weapon.”

At the same Dallas speech, Trump said the United States now controlled the strategically critical Strait of Hormuz and jokingly suggested renaming it after himself.

“We’ll win it. We’re winning it. We control the Hormuz Strait,” Trump said. “I think we should call it the Trump Strait. I should get something out of it.”