“We’re going to take out Pickaxe Mountain. Tell the Iranians to be ready,” Trump said.
By United with Israel Staff
Israeli intelligence believes Iran has quietly relocated thousands of uranium-enrichment centrifuges into a deeply buried tunnel complex near its Natanz nuclear facility, raising concerns that Tehran could rebuild key parts of its nuclear program beyond the reach of conventional airstrikes, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
The assessment, which has reportedly been shared with the United States, centers on Pickaxe Mountain, a vast underground complex carved into Mount Kolang Gaz La, about two kilometers south of Natanz.
According to Israeli and U.S. officials cited in the report, the centrifuges were transferred to the mountain in the months following last year’s 12-day war, after Israeli and American strikes severely damaged Iran’s principal uranium-enrichment and centrifuge-production facilities.
Although intelligence agencies have found no evidence that Iran is currently enriching uranium inside the tunnels, Israeli officials fear the relocated equipment could allow Tehran to rapidly restart enrichment operations from a site designed to survive future attacks.
“There is more work to do,” an Israeli military official familiar with last year’s campaign told the newspaper, saying the previous strikes did not eliminate every element of Iran’s potential nuclear weapons program.
The report adds new context to President Donald Trump’s recent warning that the underground facility remains in America’s sights.
“We’re going to take out Pickaxe Mountain. Tell the Iranians to be ready,” Trump told radio host Hugh Hewitt last week.
Trump said U.S. intelligence had not detected active operations at the site but indicated it remained on a list of potential targets and could be struck “relatively soon.”
Iran began constructing the underground complex after a mysterious explosion destroyed an above-ground centrifuge assembly facility at Natanz in 2020. Tehran blamed the blast on sabotage and announced it would replace the damaged plant with a larger, more secure facility deep inside the nearby mountain.
Former Atomic Energy Organization chief Ali Akbar Salehi later confirmed Iran was building an underground hall for advanced centrifuge production, while International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Grossi described the effort as part of Iran’s “systematic intention to put their most sensitive facilities underground.”
Satellite imagery shows multiple tunnel entrances leading into an expansive underground network buried between roughly 90 and 137 meters beneath solid rock, potentially deeper than the Fordow enrichment facility targeted by the United States during last year’s war.
Because of its depth, analysts say destroying the site would be extremely challenging even with America’s most powerful bunker-busting bombs. Alternative military options could include collapsing tunnel entrances, disabling ventilation and power systems, or carrying out sabotage or a ground operation.
Recent satellite images reviewed by the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security show construction continuing, with reinforced entrances, expanded security infrastructure, and ongoing vehicle activity around the complex.
While the institute previously assessed that the site was not yet operational and did not appear to house enriched uranium, its president, David Albright, said the reported relocation of centrifuges is plausible, noting the facility is large enough to support centrifuge production, equipment storage, or even a covert uranium-enrichment operation.
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