Trump warns of possible Pickaxe Mountain strike

Speaking to reporters at the Oval Office, Trump defended the US military campaign against Iran and said its main goal was to stop Tehran from developing a nuclear weapon.

“We’re in five months now. And you know what we did in five months? They’re not going to have a nuclear weapon; that’s what we did,” Trump said.

“Iran will not have a nuclear weapon because if they did, you probably wouldn’t be standing here very long,” he added.

Trump then warned that Pickaxe Mountain could be targeted if the US detects activity at the site.

“We may hit Pickaxe very soon because if there was anything going on with Pickaxe,” Trump said, adding that US intelligence was closely monitoring activity at the site.

“We know everybody that’s moving at Pickaxe; we know everybody that’s moving everywhere all over Iran. And if anything goes bad, we hit them; we hit them hard,” Trump said.

What is Pickaxe Mountain?

Pickaxe Mountain is located near Iran’s heavily damaged Natanz uranium-enrichment facility. The site is described as a fortified underground complex with two deeply buried tunnel systems.

The Wall Street Journal had earlier reported that Israeli intelligence believes Iran has moved thousands of centrifuges to the deeply buried facility.

Because the site is built deep underground, it is believed to be more resistant to conventional air strikes. Any US decision to attack it could therefore mark a major escalation in the campaign against Iran’s nuclear infrastructure.

Trump says US action stopped conflict

Trump also said US military action had prevented a wider regional conflict. He argued that without American intervention, Israel and other parts of the Middle East could have faced a greater threat.

“If we didn’t go in there, you wouldn’t have Israel right now, you wouldn’t have the Middle East, and they probably would go at European cities and our cities next,” Trump said.

“But we stopped them from having a nuclear weapon in five months,” he added.

US strikes Iranian military targets

Trump’s remarks came days after the US Central Command said American forces had completed a wave of strikes against Iranian military targets.

According to CENTCOM, the operations targeted facilities linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC. The targets included air-defence systems, radar installations, maritime assets, mine-laying capabilities and communications sites.

CENTCOM said the strikes followed recent “attempted attacks” by the IRGC against commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and US service members.

Trump claims US destroyed Iranian radar systems

Trump also spoke about recent US strikes on Iranian radar systems. He claimed American forces had destroyed sophisticated radar installations twice.

“There had been no shooting for days before the hit that we gave them the other night to wipe out the radar they had,” Trump said.

“They had very sophisticated radar – they brought in radar because we knocked it out once, and now we knocked it out twice. Now we don’t notice any activity,” he added.

Trump suggested Iran had become reluctant to deploy radar systems after repeated US attacks.

“I think they’re tired of putting it in and getting blown up,” he said.

Iran condemns latest US strikes

Iran has strongly condemned the latest American strikes. Tehran accused Washington of violating Iranian sovereignty and targeting non-military infrastructure and civilian sites across several provinces.

Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Iranian armed forces responded with what it described as “crushing defensive strikes” against US military bases in West Asia.

Tehran said those bases served as the origin, support and staging points for American attacks.