President Donald Trump has threatened military strikes against Pickaxe Mountain, a highly fortified underground Iranian facility suspected of being prepared to house nuclear centrifuges. This escalation follows the collapse of a short-lived June 17 interim ceasefire, shifting the focus of the conflict from the Strait of Hormuz back to Tehran's nuclear ambitions.
Located 220 kilometres south of Tehran near the heavily damaged Natanz complex, the site has been under construction since 2020 to replace above-ground assembly halls destroyed by sabotage. Buried at least 100 metres deep, the facility presents a severe targeting challenge for the United States military, as experts from the Institute for Science and International Security note that the tunnels are virtually impervious to conventional airstrikes. Although Iranian officials deny active nuclear operations at the site, the International Atomic Energy Agency remains unable to verify Tehran's centrifuge capacity, raising fears that the complex will eventually host a reconstituted weapons program.
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