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Trump Threatens New Strike on Iran Pickaxe Mountain Nuclear Site — AI-generated representative image: A fortified mountain site in Iran's Isfahan province, illustrating the reported underground nuclear facility near Natanz.

Editorial Team

Renewed warning targets the fortified Natanz facility as an Iranian oil tanker is reportedly hit near Kharg Island.

United States President Donald Trump has said Washington may strike Iran's Pickaxe Mountain "very soon," issuing the latest in a series of threats against the heavily fortified underground site located next to the bombed-out Natanz enrichment complex. Trump made the remarks while speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Friday, saying the US knows "everybody that's moving at Pickaxe" and across Iran.

Hours after the threat, an Iranian oil tanker off Kharg Island was struck by four US missiles, according to Iranian news outlet Khabar Fouri. Kharg Island is the main hub for Iran's oil exports, handling about 90 percent of the country's shipments.

The threat against Pickaxe Mountain matters because the site remains largely intact after more than six months of war between the US, Israel and Iran, which began on February 28. With Iran's centrifuge manufacturing base and enrichment halls at other sites damaged, analysts view the mountain's deep tunnels as the most likely place for Tehran to rebuild its nuclear infrastructure.

The renewed focus also arrives amid conflicting signals from the Trump administration about the state of the conflict, with officials simultaneously downplaying the war while continuing military strikes.

Latest Threats and Military Activity

Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Friday that Washington may strike Pickaxe Mountain "very soon" and claimed the US knows everyone moving at the site.
An Iranian oil tanker off Kharg Island was struck by four US missiles hours later, according to Iranian outlet Khabar Fouri.
Trump's remarks echoed a mid-July statement on the Hugh Hewitt Show, when he said: "We're going to take out Pickaxe Mountain. Tell the Iranians to be ready."
Vice President JD Vance said at a White House briefing this week that he "wouldn't call it a war" and claimed there was "no active shooting right now," despite continued exchanges of attacks.

The Site and Its Strategic Significance

Known in Iran as Kuh-e Kolang Gaz La, Pickaxe Mountain sits roughly 220km (140 miles) south of Tehran in Isfahan province, just 2km (1.2 miles) from the Natanz enrichment plant. US intelligence reports indicate the facility has been excavated deep inside the mountain beneath hundreds of metres of solid granite rock, with main chambers thought to lie at least 100 metres (330ft) underground.

The site was left untouched during the US's June 2025 strikes on Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan, and has escaped the current war almost entirely. The Wall Street Journal reported in July that Israel had passed Washington intelligence suggesting thousands of centrifuges were moved inside the facility late last year, a claim the US has not confirmed. Iran maintains it is developing only a nuclear power programme and has no plans to build a nuclear weapon.

Damage Assessments and Nuclear Stockpile Uncertainty

The European Council on Foreign Relations estimates that the 2025 strikes likely destroyed many of the roughly 18,000 centrifuges then operating at Iran's Natanz and Fordow facilities, along with several centrifuge production sites and Ardakan, Iran's only yellowcake milling plant. Nearly 4,000 additional centrifuges were installed but idle at the time and may have survived.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirmed further damage to the entrance buildings of Natanz's underground enrichment plant in March 2026, though it detected no additional impact on the plant itself. Iran is currently believed to hold about 440kg (970lb) of uranium enriched to 60 percent. Nader Hashemi, a professor of Middle East politics at Georgetown University, noted that producing a nuclear weapon would require enriching that uranium to 90 percent, which depends on access to centrifuges "of which we don't know to what extent they may have been damaged."

Negotiations in Limbo and What Comes Next

Talks related to Iran's nuclear programme have remained stalled since a 60-day negotiating window expired in mid-August without a deal. Iran has suspended cooperation with the IAEA, which now says it cannot report on the size, location or composition of the enriched uranium stockpile.

Iran's Khatam al-Anbiya central military headquarters has warned that bombing Pickaxe Mountain would amount to a renewal of war across the region. Tehran insists its nuclear programme is peaceful and has dismissed Washington's focus on the mountain as a manufactured pretext for attack.