Trump Revives Pickaxe Mountain Threat After 'Obliteration' Claim — SkimNews
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- Trump threatened to strike Iran's Pickaxe Mountain 'very soon' in Oval Office remarks Friday — a site he declared 'completely and totally obliterated' after June 2025 strikes on Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan.
- Iran's oil tanker off Kharg Island was struck by four US missiles hours after Trump's threat, per Iranian outlet Khabar Fouri; Kharg handles roughly 90 percent of Iran's oil exports.
- Pickaxe Mountain (Kuh-e Kolang Gaz La) sits 2km from the Natanz enrichment plant with main chambers at least 100 metres underground beneath hundreds of metres of granite; the Institute for Science and International Security assesses it remains under construction and not yet operational.
- ISIS has recorded only the destruction of a vehicle on a nearby spoil pile since June 2025 — the site was left alone during both the 12-day Israel war and the current US campaign, with Western analysts calling its tunnels the most obvious place for Tehran to rebuild centrifuge production.
- Iran is believed to hold about 440kg of uranium enriched to 60 percent — theoretically enough for more than 10 nuclear warheads if enriched to 90 percent, per IAEA chief Rafael Grossi.
- The IAEA confirmed damage to Natanz's underground entrance buildings in March 2026 but has no inspectors inside the bombed sites; Iran suspended cooperation after the strikes, leaving the stockpile's size, location, and composition unknown.
- JD Vance said this week he 'wouldn't call it a war' and shrugged off an alleged US strike on a wedding in southern Iran with 'sometimes things happen,' while Trump called the conflict 'small potatoes' — mixed messaging that Iran warned would trigger a 'renewal of war across the region' if Pickaxe is hit.
Why it matters: Trump's renewed threat exposes a direct contradiction with his June 2025 claim that Iran's nuclear sites were 'completely and totally obliterated' — Pickaxe was never struck in that round. With 440kg of 60%-enriched uranium unaccounted for, IAEA inspectors locked out since the strikes, and nuclear talks frozen since a 60-day window expired in mid-August, Pickaxe Mountain has become Trump's next pressure point ahead of pivotal midterm elections and while the war's human and economic costs mount.
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