US will hit Iran’s nuclear fortress Pickaxe mountain very soon, Trump reveals & says ‘they haven’t seen anything yet’

DONALD Trump has threatened to bomb Pickaxe Mountain, where Iran is reported to have moved its nuclear material. The US President is now eyeing an all-out war with the Islamic Republic after 10 straight nights of strikes have failed to break the regime’s grip on the Strait of Hormuz. A satellite view shows tunnel entrances at Pickaxe Mountain, of the Natanz nuclear facility, near Natanz, Iran Credit: Reuters Vehicles at an entrance to Pickaxe Mountain tunnels Credit: Reuters “We’ll be hitting that area very probably pretty soon, and there’s not a not a thing they can do about it,” the US President told reporters in the White House. Responding to claims by Israel that the Islamic Republic has concealed its stockpiles in a fortified deep-underground complex in the Natanz area, he said: “I think that they may have. We don’t have it on record. Sign up for The Sun newsletter Thank you! “[But] it doesn’t mean anything unless they have the material.” Pickaxe is a peak in the mountains surrounding the city of Natanz, and is over 5,000ft high – taller than any mountain in the UK. Buried 328ft down, the site is heavily fortified, and it is believed that it hosts two tunnel complexes. The US attacked three Iranian nuclear sites – Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan – deploying 30,000-pound GBU-57 “massive ordnance penetrator” bombs in an operation called “Midnight Hammer” that took place in June 2025. Trump hailed the strikes as “historically successful” at the time, and just this week he repeated again that Iran would have already unleased a nuclear weapon on Israel had it not been for the US action during the 12-Day war. But destroying Pickaxe Mountain will take far more to reach the deeper tunnels. Most read in The Sun Smoke rises from an explosion at an unknown location in Iran Credit: Reuters The moment of the US Central Command strike Credit: Reuters Experts assess it as being beyond the reach of the most powerful bunker buster bombs in the US arsenal. Trump’s threat about strikes on the fortress comes after he said that the regime wants to “desperately” meet because they are getting “decimated” – but that he has no interest right now. Giving a dim view on possible talks to end the war, he said: “Until they are ready to meet in a meaningful way, we have no interest in meeting.” The US has already deployed extra F-16 and F-35 fighter jets from bases in Europe, as well as aerial refuelling tankers, in a sign the conflict is about to escalate. The president also received a briefing from ­military chiefs on options to intensify the attacks. Options include capturing Kharg Island, where 90 per cent of Iranian oil exports pass through and bombing nuclear facilities. At least three US soldiers have been killed in the renewed fighting, and Trump has ordered the Pentagon to make the regime pay “many times over” for every death. Earlier today, Iran confirmed that it is again in a full-scale war with the US, adding that it is “counting down the minutes” to the US launching an invasion. Trump speaks during a bilateral meeting with President of Lebanon Joseph Aoun in the Oval Office of the White House on July 21, 2026 Credit: Getty President Masoud Pezeshkian said: “The reality is the Islamic Republic of Iran is engaged in a full-scale war. “We must be realistic and accept the natural consequences of this resistance.” Foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said his nation is counting down the minutes to “welcome” US forces in a ground offensive. He added that the US would face “consequences of any adventure” if it tries to seize Kharg Island. In the meantime, regional mediators are working overtime to put a stop to a continuation of the war that has embroiled the entire Middle East. The new ceasefire proposal would halt the fighting, reopen both shipping lanes through the Strait of Hormuz, and give the US and Iran room to salvage their collapsing memorandum of understanding (MOU). “We told the US and Iran that we propose a cooling-off period,” one of the regional sources said, according to Axios. Comment now