Trump says US to strike Iran's Pickaxe Mountain nuclear site
Satellite imagery has detected recent construction at the underground facility.
Elizabeth Hagedorn Jul 13, 2026
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US President Donald Trump gestures as he steps off Air Force One to board the new Qatari-gifted Boeing plane, en route to the United States following his participation in the NATO Summit at Royal Air Force Mildenhall on July 8, 2026, in Mildenhall, England. — Win McNamee/Getty Images
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WASHINGTON — As he pledged further strikes on Iran, President Donald Trump said Monday that the United States could target an underground nuclear facility known as Pickaxe Mountain.
“Pickaxe is a possible target for a nice, big, fat shot right in the front door,” Trump said in an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt.
"We're going to take out Pickaxe Mountain,” Trump added. “Tell the Iranians to be ready. Let them know we're coming, okay? There's not a damn thing they can do about it.”
When construction began in 2020, the Iranian government described the heavily fortified facility as a centrifuge assembly plant. International inspectors haven't been permitted to visit Pickaxe Mountain, fueling concerns it could be used for other covert purposes, such as uranium enrichment. Because the site is so deeply buried, experts say it's unclear whether US airstrikes alone could destroy it.
Trump said Monday the US government has “a lot of eyes” on Pickaxe Mountain and that there is “no activity” there. But the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security, which studies Iran's nuclear sites, said on July 2 that vehicle activity observed in satellite images from late June indicates that construction inside the Pickaxe Mountain tunnel complex and the hardening of its entrance is ongoing.
The Pickaxe Mountain facility is located in the Zagros Mountains about one mile away from Natanz, one of the three Iranian nuclear sites that the US military bombed in June 2025. Since then, Iran has only allowed the International Atomic Energy Agency to visit sites that don't pose a proliferation risk, such as the Tehran Research Reactor and Iran’s commercial nuclear facility in Bushehr.
Negotiators for the United States and Iran were expected to discuss inspector access during the 60-day period for nuclear talks set out by their preliminary agreement. In Monday’s interview, Trump downplayed the deal, calling it a “test” that "didn’t mean much.”
"We're going to hit them very hard tonight, and we're going to hit them hard tomorrow,” he said.
Shortly after Trump's remarks, US Central Command announced it had begun a third consecutive night of strikes against Iran "at the commander in chief's direction," saying the operations would "continue imposing a heavy cost on Iranian forces and degrade their ability to attack innocent civilians and commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz."
Related Topics
Iran-US tensions
Nuclear Power
Trump