In yet another indication that the situation in the Middle East would remain uncertain in the near future, US President Donald Trump has threatened to target Iran’s Pickaxe Mountain “very soon”. Pickaxe Mountain is Iran’s heavily fortified underground complex that is located near the massively damaged Natanz uranium-enrichment facility.
Speaking to reporters at the Oval Office of White House on Friday (local time), the 80-year-old Republican leader reiterated that the primary objective of the United States is ensure that Iran does not acquire a nuclear weapons, as he justified his administration’s actions. He said the Pickaxe Mountain would surely be targeted if an activity is detected there.
“We’re in five months now. And you know what we did in five months? They’re not going to have a nuclear weapon; that’s what we did,” Trump said. “Iran will not have a nuclear weapon because if they did, you probably wouldn’t be standing here very long.”
“We may hit Pickaxe very soon because if there was anything going on with Pickaxe,” he added, “We know everybody that’s moving at Pickaxe; we know everybody that’s moving everywhere all over Iran. And if anything goes bad, we hit them; we hit them hard.”
Why US wants to target Pickaxe Mountain?
The Pickaxe Mountain is located next to the Natanz nuclear facility that is roughly 225 kilometres south of Iran’s capital Tehran. The Natanz nuclear facility, which is officially called the Shahid Ahmadi Roshan Nuclear Facilities, is considered as the centre of Iran’s nuclear programme.
During the 12-day war in June 2025, Israel targeted the Natanz, heavily damaging the site. Later, the US also targeted it with B-2 Spirit bombers and dropped a couple of heavy bunker buster bombs. Further, Israel continued carrying out sabotage attacks.
The repeated targeting of Natanz forced the Iranians to shift its nuclear programme to Pickaxe Mountain, where a new facility is being built. It is built across 2.7 square kilometre of area. According to Associated Press (AP), it is protected by anti-aircraft batteries, fencing and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
The AP said the facility is being built at a depth of between 80 metres and 100 metres, and experts feel that it would be used to enrich uranium as well as to build centrifuges.
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