Trump threatens to strike Iran's underground 'Pickaxe Mountain' nuclear site 'very heavily'

US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday, July 21, 2026, that Washington intends to strike the underground nuclear facility known as "Pickaxe Mountain" in central Iran "very heavily" and soon. He made the remarks as the United States carried out a tenth consecutive night of air strikes on Iran, and claimed Tehran was "desperate" to talk.

Pickaxe Mountain, located about two kilometres south of the Natanz nuclear complex and some 220 kilometres south of Tehran, has been under construction since 2020, and Iran initially described it as a centrifuge assembly plant. According to satellite-image analysis by the Institute for Science and International Security, the site is carved tens of metres below the mountain's bedrock and is assessed to be deeper and more fortified than the Fordow facility; IAEA inspectors have never been granted access, and the site has not previously been struck.

An escalated threat against a hardened nuclear site raises the war-risk premium weighing on markets, a factor that has pressured Iran's currency and domestic gold as well as global oil prices in recent weeks.