Newsmax: President Donald Trump said Friday that the United States may strike Iran’s Pickaxe Mountain facility “very soon.”
He also said new oil pipelines could eventually reduce the importance of the Strait of Hormuz.
Pickaxe Mountain, located near Iran’s heavily damaged Natanz uranium enrichment facility, is a heavily fortified site containing two deeply buried tunnel complexes, according to Reuters.
Trump said the United States has extensive intelligence about activity around the site, crediting U.S. space technology and the U.S. Space Force.
“We’re leading in space. We know everybody that’s moving at Pickaxe, we know everybody that’s moving everywhere, all over Iran, and if anything goes bad, we hit them. We hit them hard,” Trump told reporters.
Trump also described the conflict with Iran as a “military conflict” rather than a war.
“It’s small potatoes for us. It’s not a big thing,” Trump said.
Trump has previously threatened to strike Pickaxe Mountain. In July, he said the United States would “take out” the site and said Iran should be prepared for an attack, according to Reuters.
The site has attracted attention because of its underground tunnel complexes and its proximity to the Natanz nuclear facility. Reuters reported that experts assess the tunnels to be beyond the reach of the most powerful bunker-buster bombs in the U.S. arsenal.
Trump also discussed the Strait of Hormuz, saying Iran had placed mines in the waterway and that U.S. minesweepers had removed them.
“We took out all the mines. They had some mines; we took them all with our minesweepers,” Trump said.
Trump also pointed to the construction of alternative oil pipelines, suggesting they could reduce the strategic importance of the Strait of Hormuz.
The strait remains a major route for global energy supplies.
Reuters reported Friday that only four commodity vessels crossed the waterway on Thursday, compared with a 10-day average of about 15, while oil prices were headed for their largest weekly gain since mid-July amid renewed U.S.-Iran tensions.