United States President Donald Trump says Washington may strike Iran’s Pickaxe Mountain “very soon”, in just the latest in a series of threats he has made against the heavily fortified underground site located next to the bombed-out Natanz enrichment complex. Just hours after he made that 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.
Trump made the threat against Pickaxe Mountain as he was speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Friday, saying the US knows “everybody that’s moving at Pickaxe” and across Iran. His remarks echoed a similar threat he made back in mid-July, when he stated on the Hugh Hewitt Show: “We’re going to take out Pickaxe Mountain. Tell the Iranians to be ready … We’ll probably give Pickaxe a shot relatively soon.” The latest threat comes more than six months into the war that the US and Israel launched on Iran on February 28, amid mixed messages about the war from the Trump administration.
On Friday, Trump sought to downplay the war in Iran, calling it “small potatoes”, while a day earlier, at a White House news briefing, Vice President JD Vance appeared to suggest the conflict had cooled and to shrug off an alleged US strike on a wedding in southern Iran with “sometimes things happen“. At a White House briefing this week, Vance said of the conflict with Iran that he “wouldn’t call it a war” and claimed there was “no active shooting right now”. But the US and Iran have exchanged attacks this week, including a US hit close to Iran’s oil infrastructure on Kharg Island.
Meanwhile, talks related to Iran’s nuclear programme have remained in limbo since a 60-day negotiating window expired in mid-August without a deal. Iran says it is not undertaking any work at the Natanz nuclear site. Its Khatam al-Anbiya central military headquarters has warned that bombing the nearby mountain would amount to a renewal of war across the region, at a time when the Trump administration would prefer to keep the war contained before pivotal mid-term elections.
So why has Pickaxe Mountain become the latest focus of Trump’s threats – again? Known in Iran as Kuh-e Kolang Gaz La, the site sits roughly 220km (140 miles) south of the capital Tehran, in Isfahan province, and just 2km (1.2 miles) from the Natanz enrichment plant. US intelligence reports indicate that the facility has been excavated deep inside the mountain, beneath hundreds of metres of solid granite rock, to protect it from powerful bombs designed to penetrate bunkers.
The main chambers are thought to lie at least 100 metres (330ft) underground. Some Western analysts have speculated that the mountain was intended to house an undeclared enrichment plant, a hedge against attacks on Iran’s known facilities. The Institute for Science and International Security, which tracks the site by satellite, has assessed that it is still under construction and not yet operational.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
