New Delhi, July 22 -- WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump declared on Monday that the United States would bomb Iran's Pickaxe Mountain facility "pretty soon, very heavily," a statement that landed hours after The Wall Street Journal reported Israeli intelligence believes Iran has already moved nuclear centrifuges inside the mountain. The two developments describe a strategic problem the current US arsenal may not be equipped to solve.

Pickaxe Mountain, officially Kuh-e Kolang Gaz La, sits one mile south of the Natanz nuclear complex. It was not struck in Operation Midnight Hammer, the March 2026 US-Israeli air campaign that destroyed Fordow, Natanz, Isfahan, and Arak. The mountain housing its tunnel complex stands 1,608 meters above sea ...