Iran denies nuclear activity at Pickaxe Mountain after Trump strike threat

Iran's foreign ministry on Wednesday rejected allegations of nuclear activity at its underground Pickaxe Mountain site, one day after President Donald Trump vowed the U.S. military would hit the fortified complex "pretty soon" and "very heavily."

Foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said on X that "Washington's obsessive focus on Kolang Kouh where no nuclear activity is taking place is nothing more than a fabricated pretext for aggression, destruction, and sabotage." He insisted that "Iran's nuclear activities have been fully declared" to the International Atomic Energy Agency in accordance with its safeguards obligations.Facebookapp+2

Trump's Tuesday Warning

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Trump acknowledged there was no hard evidence Iran was using the site for nuclear purposes but said they "may have" stored centrifuges there. "We'll be hitting that area very, probably pretty soon," he said. "There's not a thing they can do about it. You know, 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."Breitbart+1

Trump also dismissed the prospect of negotiations, saying Iran "desperately" wanted to meet but that "until they're ready to meet in a meaningful way, we have no interest in meeting."youtube

What Is Pickaxe Mountain?

The site, formally known as Kūh-e Kolang, sits roughly two kilometers from Iran's Natanz enrichment facility, which was bombed during U.S.-Israeli strikes in June 2025. It consists of two deeply buried tunnel complexes excavated beneath what Reuters Thomson Reuters Corporation ↗ 2.92% described as hundreds of meters of granite, placing it potentially beyond the reach of the most powerful bunker-buster bombs in the U.S. arsenal.Reuters+2

Iran has maintained since 2021 that the facility is intended solely for manufacturing advanced centrifuges. Western intelligence agencies, however, suspect Tehran may be constructing an undeclared uranium enrichment plant as a strategic hedge for its nuclear program. The Institute for Science and International Security reported in early July that satellite imagery showed ongoing construction and vehicle activity at the site, though it assessed the facility was "not yet operational."ABC News+3

The U.S. has not yet followed through on Trump's threat against Pickaxe Mountain. The warning came amid a broader military campaign that has included multiple rounds of strikes on Iranian military targets over recent weeks.aljazeera+2