US has sights on Iran's suspected nuclear mountain

An Iranian mountain that President Donald Trump has threatened to attack is suspected of being a cover for deeply embedded nuclear complex.

Trump said on Tuesday that US forces would soon be hitting mount Kolang, known as Pickaxe mountain in English, "very heavily".

Last week, Trump declared that the mountain was "a possible target for a nice big fat shot right in the front door".

The Iranian government has denied any nuclear work is carried out there. Foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei called Trump's comments "a fabricated pretext for aggression".

The mountain is close to the Natanz nuclear enrichment complex in central Iran which was attacked last year when the United States and Israel launched a 12-day war against Iran.

Construction work on the suspected nuclear complex in the mountain's granite underground started in 2020, probably following a fire, believed to have been a sabotage attempt, at the Natanz centrifuge assembly hall, according to western experts.

The head of Iran's nuclear programme, Ali Akbar Salehi, said at the time that new halls would be built "in the heart of the mountain" near Natanz.

The United States used its GBU-57 bunker bombs to attack the Natanz and Fordo nuclear sites in June last year. The bombs can penetrate several metres of concrete before exploding.

Kolang was not attacked then and has not been targeted in the war that erupted on February 28, according to the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS).

- Centrifuges report -

Several bombs were fired at the Fordo underground site last year and the Iranian authorities then planned to make the installations deeper under the Kolang mountain, according to Mohammad Hassan Najmi, an international relations expert.

In a note published on July 14, ISIS said that according to satellite images, the new installation, at least 100 metres under the mountain, was not operational and work was still being carried out.

That depth would be beyond the penetration range of GBU-57 bombs, according to James Acton, an expert on nuclear issues with the Carnegie Foundation.

He said the US bombs could destroy access tunnels "but that isn't a game-changer".

The space beneath the mountain could be large enough to house a centrifuge enrichment plant capable of producing weapons-grade uranium, according to ISIS.

The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that Israeli intelligence services have assured the United States that thousands of centrifuges were transferred last fall under Mount Kolang.

The timing of this revelation is striking to several Iran experts, as Trump's attention in recent days has focused on reopening the Strait of Hormuz, at the expense of the nuclear issue, which is critical in Israel's eyes.

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