President Donald Trump said on Saturday that the United States still has to take care of one or two remaining targets in Iran, including a suspected nuclear site known as Pickaxe Mountain, and that American forces could do it in 10 minutes. Speaking to reporters at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach, Florida, during a Halloween gathering, Trump said Washington was in no hurry to act because earlier strikes had already knocked out much of Iran’s military and nuclear programme.
“We’ve knocked out their nuclear. We still have to take care of, I would say one or two sites, but we can do that in 10 minutes,” Trump told reporters. “You probably could look at Pickaxe Mountain, and you have to take care of that. We can do that all very quickly,” he added, referring to a suspected underground nuclear complex.
Trump’s remarks matter because they came days before the November 3 midterm elections and at a moment when Washington is weighing whether to resume strikes on Iran. The president has previously warned of fresh military action after the midterms, and his comments put a specific site and a specific time frame on that threat for the first time in this round of warnings.
Military option stays open as talks continue
Trump also said negotiations with Iran to end the war that the United States and Israel began at the end of February were “going fine but you know they’re not very reliable.” He said Iran wanted a deal, but he questioned Tehran’s reliability, and he repeated his position that Iran will never be allowed to acquire a nuclear weapon.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio struck a more cautious note earlier on Saturday. Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, Rubio said Trump had not yet made a decision on whether to resume military operations against Tehran and that the United States would be open to a diplomatic solution. “The President prefers not to approach the situation that way. If he did, he would have done so weeks or months ago. He would prefer to resolve it diplomatically,” Rubio said.
Rubio added that he had no announcement to make on fresh strikes, and he said talks had continued through direct communication as well as through intermediaries. Iranian envoys have met Qatari mediators in Doha as part of those efforts, and sources involved in the mediation have told regional media that the negotiations made progress, although the United States has not confirmed those reports.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday that Trump had spoken by telephone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday morning as the United States laid plans to resume strikes on Iran, citing people familiar with the conversation. Separately, MSNOW reported earlier on Saturday, citing three senior Gulf Arab officials familiar with the discussions, that Washington had warned Gulf allies to prepare for a possible new round of strikes on Iran as early as November 4, a day after the midterm elections.
Iran’s government has denied that any nuclear work is carried out at Pickaxe Mountain. Western intelligence has flagged the site as likely used to store nuclear material, and it has not been struck yet by the United States in the war, according to reports. Iran’s supreme leader warned the United States and Israel on Saturday against launching new attacks, following threats to resume strikes after the elections.
Trump said the United States had already destroyed much of Iran’s fighting capability. “We’re not in very much of a hurry from the standpoint that we’ve knocked out their navy. We’ve knocked out their air force. We’ve knocked out their anti-aircraft. We’ve knocked out almost every piece of military equipment they have,” he said. The United States has not struck Iran since September 1, while Trump had pledged to refrain from further attacks until after the midterms.
No decision on renewed strikes has been announced. What is confirmed is that Trump has named Pickaxe Mountain publicly as a remaining target, that Rubio says diplomacy remains the president’s preference, and that mediation through Qatar is continuing. What is not confirmed is whether strikes will follow the election, or when any such decision would be taken. The next known markers are the midterm vote on November 3 and the November 4 date cited in the Gulf-allies report, which Washington has not confirmed.
