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Tehran has responded to U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat that the United States would soon strike Pickaxe Mountain, located about 1.5 kilometers from the Natanz nuclear facility in central Iran. Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters warned that such an attack would be met with a forceful response, Iranian state broadcaster IRIB reported.
According to the Iranian statement, such an attack would be regarded as “an expansion of the war in the region,” and “all American interests, its allies and supporters” would consequently face Iranian strikes.
CNN reported, citing an Israeli source, that Iran had moved advanced centrifuges and part of its enriched uranium stockpile to a fortified underground facility at Pickaxe Mountain, a site that would be difficult for the United States and Israel to strike.
According to the report, construction of the facility began in 2020. Iran told the International Atomic Energy Agency at the time that the site was intended to serve as a future assembly facility for centrifuges used in nuclear fuel production.
“We’ll be hitting that area probably pretty soon. And there’s not a thing they can do about it. Normally, I wouldn’t say that. If I thought they could do something about it, I would never say that, but we’ll be hitting that area pretty soon. And very heavily,” Trump said during a White House meeting with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun.
Trump also threatened to “take care of” Yemen’s Houthi rebels, who have declared a naval blockade against Saudi Arabia and threatened Saudi shipping through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a key gateway to the Red Sea.