US President Donald Trump said on Friday that the United States could soon strike Iran’s Pickaxe Mountain, a heavily fortified underground site linked to the country’s nuclear programme.
Speaking to reporters at the Oval Office, Trump defended the US’s renewed military strikes against Iran, saying Washington’s primary objective was to prevent Tehran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.
“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.
Trump said the US could target Pickaxe Mountain if it detected any activity at the site, adding that American intelligence agencies were closely monitoring the facility.
“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,” Trump said.
Pickaxe Mountain, located near Iran’s Natanz uranium-enrichment facility, is a heavily fortified underground site that houses two deeply buried tunnel complexes. It is one of the few sites linked to Iran’s nuclear programme that has not yet been targeted by US or Israeli strikes.
Media reports, citing Israeli intelligence sources, had earlier claimed that Iran had relocated thousands of centrifuges — machines used to enrich uranium — to the deeply buried facility.
The site’s underground construction is believed to make it substantially more resistant to conventional aerial bombardment. Some analysts estimate that the core of the facility could be located roughly 100 metres (328 feet) underground.
Experts have also said that the US would be unlikely to completely destroy Pickaxe Mountain even with the GBU-57, a powerful bunker-busting bomb which is reported to be capable of penetrating up to 18 metres (60 feet) of concrete or 61 metres (200 feet) of earth before exploding.
Analysing satellite imagery, the BBC reported that the facility appears to have four tunnel entrances — two on the eastern side and two on the western end.
The satellite images also show that a large perimeter fence has been built around the site following the 12-day war between Israel and Iran in June 2025.
Images captured in June this year showed several construction vehicles near one of the western entrances, according to the report.
Trump had previously warned in July that the US could strike Pickaxe Mountain if Iran failed to reach a deal with Washington.
“I know exactly what’s going on at Pickaxe. It’s not a big problem — we took out their nuclear sites, and we’ll have to take out Pickaxe if we don’t make a deal,” he had said.
