What is Pickaxe Mountain, the Iranian nuclear facility Trump is threatening to strike?

U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to bomb an Iranian underground nuclear facility in the latest escalation of the war between the two countries.

U.S. Central Command has bombed Iranian targets for 11 straight nights, including military operations centers, drone storage facilities, and military logistics infrastructure as it seeks to weaken the country’s ability to control commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.

U.S. and Iran had signed an interim memorandum of understanding on June 17 that halted military operations, called for the reopening of Hormuz and established a 60-day window for negotiating a permanent agreement, including terms covering Iran’s nuclear program. But the document left the future management of the Strait of Hormuz unresolved.

Trump’s comments on Pickaxe Mountain have put renewed focus on one of Iran’s most secure and protected facilities. Here’s what we know.

“We’ll be hitting that area very probably pretty soon, and there’s not a thing they can do about it. Normally I wouldn’t say that; if I thought they could do something about it I would never say that, but we’ll be hitting that area pretty soon, and very heavily,” Trump told reporters in the White House.

Such an attack would be considered “an explosion of war in the region,” Iran’s Khatam Al-Anbiya military command said in comments reported by the BBC from state-run broadcaster IRIB. They also threatened strikes on “all the interests of America, the allies and supporters.”

Located south of Iran’s Natanz enrichment plant, Pickaxe Mountain, or Kuh-e Kolang Gaz La as it is known in Iran, began construction in 2020. At the time, Iran said that the underground facility would replace a centrifuge plant at Natanz that had been destroyed, according to the Institute for Science and International Security.

— CNBC’s Lim Hui Jie helped contribute to this report.