Israel wary of joining fight if it'll later be ordered to stop

Trump claims US will strike Iran’s Pickaxe Mountain ‘probably pretty soon’

Israel said to believe Iran moved both centrifuges and enriched uranium to underground nuclear site last year; president downplays Houthi threats to block shipping in Red Sea

US President Donald Trump claimed Tuesday that the US will be striking Iran’s Pickaxe Mountain “probably pretty soon,” amid reports that Tehran has moved nuclear centrifuges, and possibly even enriched uranium, to the secretive underground enrichment site.

Trump, in a meeting with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, clarified that those reports haven’t been confirmed before claiming that such a development “doesn’t mean anything” anyway because Iran doesn’t have access to its stockpiles of enriched uranium needed to create a bomb.

The US has claimed that Iran can’t reach the nuclear material it possesses because it is buried deep underground after US strikes on three of Iran’s nuclear sites last year. Trump insists that the US is monitoring those sites to make sure that the stockpiles are not retrieved.

Regardless, Trump declared, “We’ll be hitting that area probably pretty soon, and there’s not a thing they can do about it.”

“They’re trying to possibly reconstitute a site. We’ll hit that site. Any site where they’ve been thinking about nuclear, we’ll be hitting it very powerfully,” he added.

Trump has been threatening to strike Pickaxe for the past week in addition to other attacks on Iranian infrastructure if Iran doesn’t capitulate to US demands for free navigation through the Strait of Hormuz.

Trump in the past has reportedly told advisers he prefers to keep Iran confused about his intentions by making bombastic threats, even if he doesn’t actually plan to carry them out.

CNN reported earlier this month that satellite imagery showed trucks going in and out of the facility at Pickaxe Mountain, possibly indicating that Iran is working to rebuild its nuclear facilities.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday that Israeli intelligence has assessed that Iran moved thousands of nuclear centrifuges into Pickaxe Mountain after the 12-day Israel-Iran war in June 2025, burying them deep underground and making them harder to target in aerial strikes.

On Tuesday, CNN reported that Israel believes that Iran also transferred some of its 440 kilograms of highly enriched uranium to Pickaxe Mountain after that war.

The report quoted a single Israeli source assessing that “part” of the stockpile of 60% enriched uranium was moved to the fortified underground site.

Experts such as David Albright say 60%-enriched uranium can potentially be further enriched to weapons grade in a matter of weeks or even days.

An unsourced report on Israel’s Channel 12 said Pickaxe Mountain, which was constructed to be impervious to bombing, may well be able to withstand the kind of bunker-buster attacks the US used against three other Iranian nuclear facilities in the June 2025 war.

Pickaxe Mountain has not been hit by the US or Israel yet.

Iran has not allowed the UN’s nuclear watchdog access to the Pickaxe Mountain site. And International Atomic Energy Agency head Rafael Grossi has said Iran in 2021 declared its “intention to have nuclear activity” there.

Pickaxe Mountain, whose peak rises to some 1,600 meters above sea level, is ‌located 220 km (140 miles) south of Tehran and 2 km (1.2 miles) from the Natanz nuclear complex.

There were two enrichment plants in operation at Natanz – one above and one below ground. The UN nuclear ​watchdog has said the above-ground one was destroyed. The other, underground one was likely at least badly damaged.

Trump: ‘Iran wants to meet… but not in a meaningful way’

Tehran has been targeting ships that have tried using an alternative route through the Strait of Hormuz closer to the Omani coast, arguing that the memorandum of understanding signed last month to end its war with the US tacitly recognized its right to control the channel, even if it agreed not to charge tolls for 60 days. The US has objected to that reading of the MOU and has carried out strikes on Iranian assets involved in the targeting of ships, leading Iran to retaliate by striking US assets across the region.

An Arab diplomat told The Times of Israel Qatari mediators have been working to restore calm between the US and Iran by crafting a deal that clarifies the MOU’s vague language regarding the Strait of Hormuz, hoping that doing so will allow the sides to finally start holding talks on Iran’s nuclear program, which were supposed to commence when the MOU was signed last month and be completed within 60 days.

Asked during his meeting with Aoun how long it will take the US military to restore safe navigation through the Strait of Hormuz, Trump dodged the question.

“We’re not finished at all, but if we left right now, it would take them 20-25 years to rebuild. But we’re not leaving right now,” he responded.

A reporter then asked Trump what he plans to do in light of Iran’s apparent unwillingness to end the conflict.

Trump angrily rejects the premise of the question. “You don’t know what the dialogue is behind the scenes,” he said. “They want to meet desperately to try to end it because they’re getting decimated.”

But while Iran purportedly wants to meet with the US, Trump asserts the US is not interested “until they’re ready to meet in a meaningful way.”

The comments suggested that Iran’s terms for ending the ongoing conflict regarding control over the Strait of Hormuz are too much for the US to accept.

Trump claimed the US is “degrading [Iran] at levels that nobody thought was possible,” before acknowledging Tehran’s weekend strike in Jordan that killed two American soldiers.

“They did slip something through in Jordan,” he says before appearing to blame their deaths on foreign operators of US equipment meant to shoot down such strikes.

Trump also went on to downplay concerns that the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen may try to block shipping in the Red Sea.

Trump said this hasn’t happened yet, but that the US would be able to deal strongly with the terror group as it has before.

Trump references a spring 2025 US bombing campaign against the Houthis, which lasted nearly two months before a ceasefire was reached.

“We haven’t heard from them in a while since we did what we did originally,” Trump told reporters. “We’ve had no problem with the Houthis. They’ve had no problem with us for a long period of time, including during this conflict [with Iran].”

The Houthis on Monday announced a maritime embargo of their foe Saudi Arabia, raising the stakes in their conflict after the pair traded fire last week for the first time in years.

Israel wary of joining fight if it’ll later be ordered to stop

Israel’s security cabinet reportedly held a six-hour meeting on Tuesday to discuss possible scenarios of escalation against Iran, as officials voice concern that Jerusalem could embark on a renewed military campaign only to then be pressed by Washington to halt it after several days

During the meeting, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio to coordinate on the various scenarios, and discuss respective American and Israeli interests, according to Channel 12, which cited Israeli officials.

One official told the network that Jerusalem is wary of rejoining the fray only to be stopped by a Washington diktat, as has occurred in past rounds of fighting with Iran.

“Our interest in this campaign depends on its substance. We do not want to find ourselves entering another military campaign only to be told to stop after a few days,” the official said.

There is no indication from the report, however, that Washington has itself asked Israel to get involved in the campaign.

In a separate report, Channel 12 said Trump is expected to decide in the coming days whether to accept a reported proposal from mediators for a 10-day ceasefire, or to pursue a broader escalation against Iran.

No final decision has been made, according to the network.

Reuters contributed to this report