Trump Threatens to Bombard Iran's Pickaxe Mountain, Alleged Secret Nuclear Site

US President Donald Trump has threatened to bombard Iran’s Pickaxe Mountain, a site believed to be a secret underground nuclear complex. “We are going to hit that area in the very near future, and very hard,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Tuesday, when asked if Iran had moved nuclear centrifuges to the location. He added that Washington believed the centrifuges may have been moved there, but acknowledged the US did not have confirmation.

Pickaxe Mountain, officially known as the Shahid Alimohammadi facility, is located near the Natanz nuclear complex in Isfahan province. According to reports, the site consists of two tunnel complexes dug deep into the Zagros Mountains, more than 100 metres below the surface, under layers of dense granite rock. Western intelligence agencies suspect the facility is intended for a secret, undeclared uranium enrichment programme, serving as a strategic safeguard for Iran’s nuclear activities.

This marks the second time in a week that Trump has publicly mentioned the site, having previously stated on The Hugh Hewitt Show that the US would “conquer Pickaxe Mountain.” Iran has consistently denied the existence of any undeclared enrichment sites, with Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi insisting all facilities are monitored by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Construction of the site began in 2020, and Tehran claims it is solely for assembling and manufacturing advanced centrifuges to replace a destroyed above-ground facility.