On Tuesday, Axios reported that Trump was considering two primary options…
- Option 1: Pursue a new 10-day ceasefire aimed at reopening the Strait of Hormuz.
- Option 2: Launch a massive joint military campaign with Israel to force Tehran’s capitulation.
Choosing to bomb Pickaxe Mountain would mean that Trump has chosen door number two.
Needless to say, that would have enormous implications for the entire world.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Israeli intelligence is convinced that “thousands of uranium-enrichment centrifuges” were moved inside Pickaxe Mountain late last year…
Israeli intelligence believes Iran moved thousands of uranium-enrichment centrifuges into tunnels deep inside a mountain last fall, Israeli and U.S. officials say, a development that would heighten concerns that Tehran could reconstitute its nuclear program.
Israel passed along the intelligence findings to the U.S., saying the centrifuges were transferred to the Pickaxe Mountain site last fall after the 12-day war in June when American and Israeli strikes pummeled Iran’s three main nuclear sites.
The reason why Iran would have wanted to move those centrifuges is to get them out of the reach of U.S. and Israeli bombers.
We are being told that the facility inside Pickaxe Mountain “was carved to a depth of more than 100 meters below bedrock”…
Satellite imagery shows that the complex was carved to a depth of more than 100 meters below bedrock, making it deeper and more fortified than the Fordow enrichment facility, a highly fortified, underground uranium enrichment facility.
To put that in perspective, 100 meters is 328 feet.
That is extremely deep.
In fact, it is so deep that the facility is considered to be out of reach “even for the most advanced bunker-penetrating bombs”…
Reaching these depths is considered a complex task, even for the most advanced bunker-penetrating bombs in the US arsenal.
Tehran claimed that the site is intended solely as a factory for the production and assembly of advanced centrifuges, not as an active enrichment facility. Iranian authorities, however, are preventing International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors from entering the site.
But U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth now appears to believe that we have weapons that can hit that facility.
On Tuesday, he made this claim to the Senate Appropriations Committee…
War Secretary Pete Hegseth said Tuesday the U.S. military has the capability to strike Iran’s underground Pickaxe Mountain nuclear facility.
Asked by lawmakers at the Senate Appropriations Committee hearing whether the U.S. could destroy whatever is beneath the mountain, Hegseth said he would not discuss specific capabilities.
“A lot of our capabilities are classified,” Hegseth said.
Personally, I am skeptical that there are any conventional weapons anywhere in the world that could do the job.
But President Trump would not order an operation unless he was convinced that it would succeed, and he just warned that the bombing of Pickaxe Mountain could happen “probably pretty soon”…
President Trump said the U.S. will be striking Pickaxe Mountain, an alleged nuclear storage facility, though he wouldn’t confirm whether they believe centrifuges have been moved to the location.
“It doesn’t mean anything unless they have the material,” Mr. Trump said. “They don’t have– we follow the material. That’s where the action is.”
That sounds rather ominous.
He also went on to say that there is “not a thing” that the Iranians can do about it…
He also said he wouldn’t usually warn Iran, but there was “not a thing they can do about it.”
“If I thought they could do something about it, I would never say that,” Mr. Trump said. “But we’ll be hitting that area pretty soon, and very heavily.”
To me, it sounds like he has made up his mind.
But with Trump you just never know until he actually pulls the trigger.
If Trump does pull the trigger, the Iranians are telling us that the response will be massive…
Iran’s top joint military command said Tuesday that all U.S. interests and those of its allies in the region would be targeted if Washington attacks Iran’s nuclear facilities, according to Iranian state media, Reuters reported.
Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, the joint military command responsible for coordinating the country’s armed forces, also said any U.S. strike on Tehran’s nuclear or other sensitive sites would lead to an expansion of the war in the region, according to state media, as reported by Iran International.
The command warned that U.S. interests and its supporters would face a “powerful assault” if an attack were carried out.
In addition, the Iranians are reportedly also threatening to strike Israel if Pickaxe Mountain is attacked…
If Iran launches ballistic missiles at Israel, that will change everything.
One senior Israeli official is warning that in such a scenario his nation “will go all in”…
A senior Israeli official said Israel does not currently seek to join the direct confrontation between Washington and Tehran, but warned that any Iranian attack on Israel would trigger a broad response using the full range of Israel’s military capabilities.
“If Iran attacks us, we will go all in and strike them,” the official said. “We do not do half-measures.”
The official said Israel possesses a “very large target bank” and would use any broader confrontation to exploit additional opportunities across the region to damage Iran’s military capabilities and those of its proxies.
The Israelis don’t want to just bomb Iran for a few days.
If there is going to be a return to all-out war, they want to finish the job.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a six hour meeting with his security cabinet on Tuesday, and during that six hour meeting Netanyahu spoke directly with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio…
Israel’s security cabinet reportedly held a six-hour meeting on Tuesday to discuss possible scenarios of escalation against Iran, as officials voice concern that Jerusalem could embark on a renewed military campaign only to then be pressed by Washington to halt it after several days
During the meeting, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio to coordinate on the various scenarios, and discuss respective American and Israeli interests, according to Channel 12, which cited Israeli officials.
Israel is waiting for Trump to make a decision.
If Pickaxe Mountain gets bombed, we will know what the decision is.
And then things will get really crazy in the Middle East.
We have reached an extraordinarily dangerous chapter in human history.
Iran moved nuclear centrifuges to 'Pickaxe Mountain,' intel reveals as US carries out 10th round of strikes
Israeli intelligence assessed that Iran moved thousands of nuclear centrifuges to tunnels deep inside the "Pickaxe Mountain" site near Natanz in an attempt to protect them from aerial strikes, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, as U.S. airstrikes on Iranian targets entered the 10th night in a row.
According to the report, which cites U.S. and Israeli sources, Israeli intelligence believes the transfer came after the 12-day war last June, and after the U.S. joined the war effort with Operation Midnight Hammer, striking three Iranian nuclear sites: Isfahan, Natanz (but not Pickaxe Mountain), and Fordow. Israel passed the intelligence findings to U.S. agencies, WSJ reported.
Iran’s development of the Pickaxe Mountain site has long attracted attention from the intelligence community, as it was believed to be related to Iran’s nuclear weapons program. It sits about 2 kilometers (roughly 1 mile) south of the Natanz nuclear enrichment plant, which both the U.S. and Israel struck in the June 2025 conflict.
Construction at the site has been ongoing since the Fall of 2020, with intelligence indicating the facility is intended to replace the Natanz enrichment plant, which was too exposed to aerial attacks, as the June 2025 strikes demonstrated. The main facility is believed to be at least 100 meters (nearly 330 feet) below the mountain's rock, accessible only by tunnels carved into the sides.
At that depth, it sits further below ground than the site at Fordow, which the U.S. struck with bunker-buster bombs in June 2025.
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