President Donald Trump told radio host Hugh Hewitt on Monday that the U.S. would take out Pickaxe Mountain, site of a major Iranian nuclear facility. “We’re going to take out Pickaxe Mountain. Tell the Iranians to be ready,” Trump said, reported Reuters. “We’re watching (Pickaxe Mountain) closely. We see no activity there. They’re not doing well with their nuclear situation. Every time we hear about it, we blow it up. So they don’t like talking about it. But we’ll probably give Pickaxe a shot relatively soon,” Trump said.
Nuclear experts told The New Arab that while the site was a likely military target because of its strategic importance, conventional US bunker-buster bombs may be unable to destroy the deeply buried facility. They also warned that any strike could further undermine international oversight of Iran’s nuclear program while risking wider regional escalation.
“Pickaxe Mountain is located more than 100 meters underground, beneath a mountain made of pure granite, one of the hardest rocks in existence. It is several times deeper and more hardened than Fordow, which itself was likely only marginally damaged,” the Middle East Spectator said on his Telegram channel. “It is presumed to be the location of Iran’s highly enriched uranium stockpile, and possibly covert enrichment cascade halls.