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Trump’s renewed Pickaxe threat
US President Donald Trump told reporters on Friday that the United States may strike Iran’s Pickaxe Mountain “very soon,” pointing to the heavily fortified underground site located next to the bombed-out Natanz enrichment complex.
“United States President Donald Trump says Washington may strike Iran’s Pickaxe Mountain “very soon””
Trump said the US knows “everybody that’s moving at Pickaxe” and warned that “if anything goes bad, we hit them, we hit them hard,” as he spoke to reporters in the Oval Office.
The threat came just hours after an Iranian oil tanker off Kharg Island was struck by four US missiles, according to Iranian news outlet Khabar Fouri.
Al Jazeera also tied the renewed focus on Pickaxe Mountain to the fact that talks related to Iran’s nuclear programme have remained in limbo since a 60-day negotiating window expired in mid-August without a deal.
War talk and monitoring
Trump defended the months-long US military campaign against Iran by saying, “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,” while warning that Pickaxe Mountain could be targeted if the US detects activity there.
Vice President JD Vance had said he “wouldn’t call it a war” and claimed there was “no active shooting right now,” as Al Jazeera described mixed messages about the war from the Trump administration.
In a separate account, Aaron David Miller of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace said, “The White House doesn’t want a massive war, and they don’t want to be seen as offering massive concessions,” describing the administration’s approach as avoiding both a return to full-throttle bombardment and accommodations to Tehran.
The Arab News also reported Trump’s framing of the conflict as “small potatoes,” quoting Trump saying, “A lot of people don’t call it a war. I call it a military conflict because it’s small potatoes for us.”
Escalation risks and regional stakes
Al Jazeera said Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya central military headquarters has warned that bombing the nearby mountain would amount to a renewal of war across the region, while Iran says it is not undertaking any work at the Natanz nuclear site.
“Khatam al-Anbiya central military headquarters has warned that bombing the nearby mountain would amount to a renewal of war”
Iran International reported that an Iranian oil tanker was hit by four US missiles about six nautical miles off Kharg Island on Saturday morning, and Tasnim said there were no casualties and the crew was evacuating the vessel.
The same Iran International report said Habibollah Sayyari, chief of staff and coordinating deputy of Iran's army, described the current conflict as “a war of wills and of enduring hardship,” adding, “We should hold our heads high knowing we have stood against an enemy with access to all the world's equipment and technology.”
In the background of the Pickaxe threat, Al Jazeera said the US and Iran have exchanged attacks this week, including a US hit close to Iran’s oil infrastructure on Kharg Island, with the nuclear negotiations still unresolved after the mid-August deadline passed.