President Donald Trump said Tuesday that the U.S. military will likely strike Iran’s Pickaxe Mountain, a deeply buried underground facility near the Natanz nuclear site that U.S. and Israeli officials suspect could be used for nuclear activity.
Speaking during a White House meeting with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, Trump said the U.S. would target the site “probably pretty soon.”
“We’ll be hitting that area very probably pretty soon. There’s not a thing they can do about it. You know, normally I wouldn’t say that. If I thought they could do something about it, I would never say that. But we’ll be hitting that area pretty soon, and very heavily,” Trump said.
Trump said U.S. officials believe Iran “may have” moved centrifuges to the facility.
Trump’s comments came after The Wall Street Journal, citing Israeli intelligence, reported that Iran had moved thousands of centrifuges into Pickaxe Mountain following previous U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.
According to the report, Pickaxe Mountain has shown signs of activity for about 15 months, including truck movements and construction work.
Iran has also denied the United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) access to the site and has not disclosed details about its operations. IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said in March that Iran informed the agency in 2021 of plans to conduct “nuclear activity” at Pickaxe Mountain.
It remains unclear whether the U.S. has weapons capable of penetrating the rock covering the facility, though officials say a strike could still damage infrastructure and restrict access to the site.
Operation Midnight Hammer in June 2025 targeted Iran’s nuclear facilities at Fordo, Natanz, and Isfahan. During the operation, B-2 Spirit stealth bombers dropped 14 GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrators or “bunker-buster” bombs, against underground enrichment facilities at Fordo and Natanz. Designed to penetrate deeply buried and hardened structures before detonating, each weapon weighs about 30,000 pounds. The Isfahan nuclear facility was targeted with Tomahawk cruise missiles.
U.S. officials told Axios that Trump is weighing two options in the Iran war: a renewed 10-day ceasefire aimed at reopening the Strait of Hormuz or a larger joint military campaign with Israel to pressure Tehran into surrendering.
Trump said Tuesday that he favors military escalation and rejected renewed talks with Iran unless Tehran agrees to what he considers meaningful negotiations.
“They want to desperately meet, and until they’re ready to meet in a meaningful way, we have no interest,” he said.
Trump also warned that the U.S. campaign against Iran is “not finished at all,” saying Tehran has not experienced the full extent of American military action.
