Trump Pickaxe Mountain Threat: ‘We’ll Knock It Out Fast’
The Trump Pickaxe Mountain threat came during a Newsmax interview on Thursday, when the president said the United States may strike Iran’s deeply buried nuclear site and ruled out both nuclear weapons and American ground troops.
“We may have to go there,” Trump said of the underground complex near Natanz. “We’ll take a shot at that one. We’ll knock it out fast.” Asked whether such an operation would involve US ground forces, he answered, “No, I don’t see that. I don’t see that.”
A Site Buried 100 Metres Deep
Pickaxe Mountain, known in Iran as Kuh-e Kolang, is a tunnel complex carved into a mountain a few miles from the Natanz nuclear facility. Iran declared it a centrifuge assembly site in 2021, and analysts estimate it sits roughly 100 metres underground. It is widely described as the last significant nuclear-linked site in Iran to have escaped strikes so far.
Trump has repeatedly threatened to hit the site since July. Analysts have cautioned that even the heaviest US bunker-busting bombs may not guarantee its destruction given the depth and rock cover.
The ‘Mother of All Bombs’ Option
Separately, CNN reported Thursday that the US is considering using the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast — the “mother of all bombs” — against Iran. Citing multiple US officials, the network said Trump has ordered the military to develop additional strike packages covering “a lot of energy infrastructure” along with the potential MOAB use, framed around acting before any US drawdown in the region.
One official told CNN that military plans for striking Iranian nuclear facilities, including Pickaxe Mountain, explicitly call for using the MOAB. Other officials questioned whether the weapon could actually destroy deeply buried sites, noting it is designed for a massive surface blast rather than deep penetration.
The 21,600-pound MOAB is the most powerful non-nuclear bomb in the US arsenal and detonates above the ground. Trump did not confirm the CNN reporting in his Newsmax interview but stressed the weapon is not nuclear: “It’s like a tiny nuclear bomb. The mother of all bombs is one big bomb, but it’s not nuclear.” Its only combat use came in April 2017, when US forces dropped it on an Islamic State tunnel complex in Afghanistan.
Mixed Signals Before the Midterms
The tough talk lands alongside conflicting signals from Washington. Last week Trump said the US would not attack Iran before the November midterm elections, and in the same Newsmax interview he predicted the conflict would end soon, saying Tehran is negotiating with Washington and that Iranian officials have asked the US and Israel to halt operations.
Energy markets are watching closely. With Hormuz shipping disruptions and tanker attacks ongoing, US crude has been trading near $97 a barrel despite accelerated releases from emergency stockpiles.
Source: The Jerusalem Post / CNN