Iran on Tuesday warned that any US strike on its nuclear facilities or other sensitive sites would be viewed as an “expansion of the war in the region”, after US President Donald Trump threatened to target
the underground Pickaxe Mountain complex.
Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters said such an attack would be viewed as an escalation of the war and warned that US interests, along with those of Washington’s allies and supporters, could become targets.
“The criminal United States has threatened to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities and other sensitive sites,” the military headquarters said, according to Iran’s state-run Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB).
The statement added that if the US military carried out such an operation, “all US interests, as well as those of its allies and supporters, will become targets of powerful attacks” by Iran’s armed forces.
Trump Threatens Strike On Pickaxe Mountain
Earlier Tuesday, Trump said that the US was not finished with Iran and warned that the next target could be Pickaxe Mountain, a deeply buried nuclear site near Natanz.
“We’ll be hitting that area pretty soon, and very heavily,” Trump told reporters, adding that he would not usually reveal military targets but claimed Iran could not prevent the attack.
Pickaxe Mountain is a fortified underground facility located about a mile south of Natanz. The site was declared to the International Atomic Energy Agency in 2020 as a future facility for assembling centrifuges used in nuclear fuel production.
Trump also said Iran could take more than two decades to rebuild from the damage caused by the current conflict.
“If we left right now, it would take Iran 20, 25 years to rebuild. Okay, and we’re not finished at all…we’re not leaving right now,” he said during a White House meeting with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun.
(With inputs from agencies)
