Trump weighs taking out Pickaxe nuclear site as US strikes Iran for 3rd night in a row

US President Donald Trump said Monday he would probably soon order a strike on the Pickaxe Mountain nuclear site, as he declared American military forces would hit Iran hard over the coming two days.

Trump’s remarks came as the US military confirmed launching strikes on Iran for a third consecutive night, while the United Aran Emirates reported early Tuesday morning that an Iranian missile attack on two of its tankers in the Strait of Hormuz killed a crew member and wounded eight others.

“We’re going to hit them very hard tonight and we’re going to hit them hard tomorrow — and there’s not a damn thing they can do about it,” Trump told conservative talk show host Hugh Hewitt. “They have nothing. They have nothing going other than they have big mouths.”

Asked about Pickaxe, which was not among the three nuclear facilities targeted by the US last year, Trump said the US was closely surveilling it.

“Pickaxe is a possible target for a nice big fat shot right near the front door,” he said.

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“We see no activity there. They’re not doing well with their nuclear situation… We’ll probably give Pickaxe a shot relatively soon,” Trump added.

Satellite images released earlier this month showed recent construction and vehicle activity at Pickaxe, which is tunneled into a mountain near the main Natanz nuclear facility. The exact purpose of the site is not known, and inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency have never been granted access.

According to the Institute for Science and International Security, there has been persistent activity at Pickaxe since April, when a ceasefire was declared in the US-Israeli war with Iran. The think tank argued that any work carried out at the site violates the memorandum of understanding signed by Washington and Tehran.

In the interview Monday, Trump downplayed the importance of that MOU, saying it was just a “test” which did not mean very much because the US was dealing with dishonorable “sleaze bags” who did not adhere to its terms. Trump said he questioned why the US was entering into a deal to create a ceasefire with Iran rather than moving toward a full deal first, after declaring last week the ceasefire was “over.”

“They didn’t honor the test,” he said.

Tehran lodged a similar accusation at the US, while claiming the MOU acknowledged its control over the Strait of Hormuz, legitimizing its demand that ships crossing through the channel follow its rules.

Asked about his pledges to help Iranian anti-regime protesters and whether they should return to the streets, Trump cautioned against the idea, given that the unarmed demonstrators were no match for the regime gunmen cracking down against them.

He claimed that he never thought a popular uprising against the regime was possible, even though he declared in a speech on the first day of the war that Iran’s people should take over their government once the bombing subsides.

Asked to respond to claims by Israeli journalists that he has thrown Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu under the bus through the MOU, the terms of which have sparked profound concern in Israel, Trump insisted that was not the case, claiming that he gets along with the Israeli premier very well.

“Sometimes I disagree with him, and I let it be known, and I’ve been right,” Trump said, before reiterating that Netanyahu has done a good job as a “wartime prime minister” and that Israel would not exist today if the two of them were not in power.

With Israeli elections approaching, Trump was also asked whether someone in Israel could do a better job than Netanyahu. The US president said he did not know most of the alternatives, but that he had a good relationship with Netanyahu.

Pressed on whether he should green light resumed Israeli conflicts Hamas and Hezbollah, Trump claimed the US has made a “lot of progress” toward getting Hamas to disarm and again touted the terror group for helping recover the bodies of slain Israeli hostages.

‘Reimbursed for protection’

Speaking later Monday at the White House, Trump said he wanted the US to be reimbursed by Gulf countries in the region for working to secure the Strait of Hormuz amid the ongoing Iranian attacks there, as he provided new details on his administration doing an about-face and suggesting it will charge tolls for ships going through the key waterway, after previously suggesting that it wouldn’t.

“I want to be reimbursed because we’re protecting a very rich portion of the world. We’re spending money, so… we are going to be reimbursed for protection,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, singling out Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait as countries that the US has protected.

Many of those Gulf countries have privately faulted the US for launching a war against Iran without coordinating with them and without a plan for what it would do when Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz. Those countries have since found themselves bearing the brunt of Iran’s retaliatory strikes.

Trump spoke about the US “protecting allies… including Israel, including Saudi Arabia, including Qatar, including UAE. We’re protecting all of them, and we’ve done a very effective job.”

He was peppered with questions about how long he expects the latest escalation with Iran to drag out, given that he campaigned on avoiding protracted conflicts. Trump reiterated that the US was striking Iran hard overnight, but claimed the current round of escalation would end quickly.

Trump said Iran agreed to a deal over the weekend that would have led to deescalation before backing out of the agreement “because they found out there was something in the deal they didn’t like.”

Asked if he thought that it would be possible to reach a settlement with Iran, Trump responded, “I never reached that conclusion. But we’re hitting them very heavy tonight.”

“They’re going to fight for a while… and we’ll see what happens,” he said.

There was no immediate statement from the US military on the target of the latest strikes, which it said were aimed at “imposing a heavy cost on Iranian forces and degrading their ability to attack innocent civilians and commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.”

Iranian media reported explosions in the port city of Bandar Abbas, Iran’s Kish and Qeshm islands and on Abu Musa Island in the Gulf. Iran’s Fars news agency said residents in the city of Jam in Iran’s Bushehr province also heard several explosions but that the exact location of the blasts was not clear. No casualties were reported.

Iran’s southwestern Khuzestan province was hit by US projectiles early on Tuesday, Fars news agency reported, citing a provincial security official, adding that four people were wounded and rescue operations were underway.

The Emirate defense ministry meanwhile announced that two national tankers were targeted by two Iranian cruise missiles in the southern lane of the Strait of Hormuz in Omani territorial waters, killing an Indian crew member and wounding six other Indians and two Ukrainians, four of them, including four seriously.

The ministry said fires broke out on both tankers but were brought under control and condemned the attack as a serious breach of international law.

“The UAE reserves its full right to respond to this escalation and to take all necessary measures to protect its territory, its citizens and residents,” the defense ministry added.

The UAE used similar language before launching attacks against Iran during the war. Fighter jets could be heard overheard Tuesday morning in Dubai.

Bahrain also came under renewed attack overnight as Iran retaliated over the latest round of US airstrikes. Bahrain sounded its missile alert siren, urging the public to seek shelter. There was no word on any damage or casualties from the attack.

Iran’s state TV cited the Iranian army as saying that it targeted a “hostile” US vessel with cruise missiles and US facilities and equipment in Kuwait with drones. Iranian media also said the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps shot down a US MQ-1 drone over Hormuz.

The incidents, which followed earlier exchanges of missile and drone attacks, extended the hostilities that followed Iran’s announcement at the weekend that it was closing the Strait of Hormuz, casting further doubt on an interim deal to halt the war and driving oil prices higher.

“The Hormuz Strait is OPEN, and will remain OPEN, with or without Iran. We are reinstating THE IRANIAN BLOCKADE,” Trump insisted earlier on Monday on Truth Social.

“The U.S.A. will be, from this point forward, known as ‘THE GUARDIAN OF THE HORMUZ STRAIT,’ but as such, and as a matter of FAIRNESS, will be reimbursed, at the rate of 20% on all cargo shipped.”

Iran’s top joint military command said the US had no role in determining the future of the waterway and would not be allowed to intervene. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi wrote on X that Tehran was the guardian of the strait and would remain so “forever,” adding in response to Trump’s comments that: “20% is of course too much. We will be fair.”

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.