Trump Vows to Strike Iran's Pickaxe Mountain Nuclear Site

President Donald Trump said Tuesday the United States would strike Iran's Pickaxe Mountain nuclear facility "pretty soon, and very heavily," escalating threats against the deep underground site as military strikes on Iran enter their 10th consecutive day. Trump made the remarks in the Oval Office, where he also said Iran "may have" moved nuclear centrifuges to the facility.

What Is Pickaxe Mountain?

Known in Iran as Kūh-e Kolang (Mount Kolang), the complex is a network of tunnels and facilities built deep into a mountain near the Natanz nuclear complex — one of three sites targeted in the US-Israeli joint strikes of June 2025. Iran declared the site a centrifuge assembly facility in 2021, following the destruction of a similar plant in neighboring Natanz.

Analysts at the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), reviewing recent satellite imagery, say construction is still underway at the facility. They estimate it is buried approximately 100 meters below ground, raising serious questions about whether conventional munitions could destroy it.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Israeli intelligence assessed Iran had transferred centrifuges — machines used to enrich uranium, a key step toward building a nuclear weapon — to Pickaxe Mountain last fall. Trump did not deny the report but said "maybe this one they have right," adding that centrifuges alone are less dangerous without the nuclear material itself.

Military Confidence — and Expert Caution

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, when asked whether the US could destroy whatever lies beneath Pickaxe, expressed full confidence: "If anybody in the world can reach anything on God's green earth, it's the United States military, the most powerful military in the world."

But independent experts urged caution. Kelsey Davenport of the Arms Control Association said the site's depth "does pose concern" but noted that the US and Israel had conspicuously spared Pickaxe in all previous strikes — suggesting they did not view it as an imminent threat at the time. She said a US attack could collapse the tunnel entrances, which would be visible via satellite and serve as an early warning system for any rebuilding effort.

Iran's Nuclear Status Unclear

Inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency have been barred from entering Iran since the US first attacked the country, leaving deep uncertainty about the status of Iran's nuclear program. Iran is believed to possess close to 1,000 pounds of highly-enriched uranium — near weapons-grade material that Trump has said the US aims to secure through its military campaign.

Trump also warned broadly: "Any site where they're even thinking about nuclear, we'll be hitting it very, very powerfully." Secretary of State Marco Rubio separately said the US would never agree to "any agreement with any country in the world that leads to the risk of proliferation."