What to learn about Iran nuclear facility Trump could strike

President Donald Trump has threatened to bomb the Iranian underground nuclear facility Pickaxe Mountain, ratcheting up tensions between the U.S. and Iran.

The president’s feedback have put renewed give attention to one in all Iran’s most safe and guarded amenities.

It comes as U.S. Central Command has bombed Iranian targets for 11 straight nights, together with navy operations facilities, drone storage amenities, and navy logistics infrastructure because it seeks to weaken the nation’s means to manage business delivery within the Strait of Hormuz.

U.S. and Iran had signed an interim memorandum of understanding on June 17 that halted navy operations, known as for the reopening of Hormuz and established a 60-day window for negotiating a everlasting settlement, together with phrases protecting Iran’s nuclear program. However the doc left the long run administration of the Strait of Hormuz unresolved.

Here is what we all know concerning the newest level of pressure between the U.S. and Iran.

Talking from Washington on Tuesday, the president stated that the U.S. navy will quickly be focusing on Pickaxe Mountain — a key underground website subsequent to an Iranian nuclear facility.

“We’ll be hitting that space very in all probability fairly quickly, and there is not a factor they will do about it. Usually I would not say that; if I assumed they might do one thing about it I might by no means say that, however we’ll be hitting that space fairly quickly, and really closely,” Trump advised reporters within the White Home.

Trump issued related threats earlier within the month on the Hugh Hewitt Present: “We’re watching [Pickaxe Mountain] carefully. We see no ⁠exercise there. They don’t seem to be doing nicely with their nuclear ​scenario. Each time we hear about it, we blow ​it up. So they do not like speaking about it. However we’ll in all probability give Pickaxe a shot comparatively quickly.”

Such an assault could be thought-about “an explosion of warfare within the area,” Iran’s Khatam Al-Anbiya navy command stated in translated feedback reported by state-run broadcaster IRIB. Additionally they threatened strikes on “all of the pursuits of America, the allies and supporters.”

Positioned south of Iran’s Natanz enrichment plant, Pickaxe Mountain, or Kuh-e Kolang Gaz La as it’s recognized in Iran, started development in 2020. On the time, Iran stated the underground facility would substitute a destroyed centrifuge plant at Natanz, which might have seen 6,000 nuclear centrifuges assembled per yr, in keeping with the Institute for Science and Worldwide Safety (ISIS).

The mountain has a peak of 1,608 meters above sea degree, whereas the ability is estimated to be 100 meters deep below the mountain, per ISIS.

Because the U.S. struck three Iranian nuclear websites in June 2025, together with Natanz, Fordow and Isfahan, development at Pickaxe Mountain has accelerated, in keeping with satellite tv for pc picture evaluation by the Heart for Strategic and Worldwide Research.

CSIS decided that Iran has constructed safety partitions round the entire website, with tunnels to the west, east, and south.

“It stays unclear when Pickaxe Mountain could possibly be operational, primarily based solely on assessments of satellite tv for pc imagery,” stated researchers at ISIS in a July 14 observe. “It is usually unclear if Iran nonetheless plans on putting in a large-scale meeting facility, given the destruction of Iran’s centrifuge program, together with Iran’s means to make centrifuge elements wanted for an meeting plant.”

— CNBC’s Lim Hui Jie and Emma Graham helped contribute to this report.