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Donald Trump has threatened a new escalation of his war in Iran, warning the US will soon launch an attack on a heavily fortified Iranian nuclear site at a time when oil prices are rising rapidly.
The president’s threat comes amid a flare-up in the nearly five-month conflict between Washington and Tehran after the US military completed its tenth consecutive night of bombing and as oil hit $91 a barrel.
Trump told reporters on Tuesday that he thought Iran “may have” moved components critical to building a nuclear weapon to a deeply buried nuclear facility beneath Kolang Gazla — known as Pickaxe Mountain — in central Iran.
“We’ll be hitting that area pretty soon, and very heavily,” he said in the Oval Office during a meeting with Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun.
Trump’s vow for fresh military action comes at a time of mounting anxiety among oil traders, with crude transits through the Strait of Hormuz having slowed to a trickle in recent days and global inventories dwindling to critically low levels.
At least seven ships have been hit in the strait since the breakdown of the ceasefire, with Iran targeting vessels attempting to transit through the waterway hugging the Omani coastline, which is largely protected by US air cover.
Of the 15 crossings recorded by the maritime intelligence company Windward on Monday, all but two sailed through the strait via a route laid out by Iran over which it exerts control over traffic.
The other two using the Omani route — tankers operated by the Greek company Dynacom — were both hit by Iranian missiles.
Brent crude, the international benchmark, rose 2.4 per cent on Tuesday to $91.34 a barrel, leaving it up 25 per cent in July.
Goldman Sachs warned late on Monday that Brent could soar to $120 if the Strait of Hormuz, which carried a fifth of the world’s oil prior to the war, remained “disrupted” by the fourth quarter of this year.
The International Energy Agency also said on Tuesday that there “is no room for complacency on oil security amid the escalation in hostilities and a continued drawdown of available commercial inventories”.
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Trump has repeatedly claimed to have “eradicated” Iran’s nuclear programme during the 12-day offensive by the US and Israel in June 2025 that targeted sites including Natanz and Fordow.
But neither military struck the heavily fortified underground tunnel facility under construction at Pickaxe Mountain.
The facility, a few kilometres south of Natanz, is a harder target to hit than Fordow because it is deeper and better protected. It is also not as well mapped as Fordow was.
Pickaxe has at least four tunnels, compared to Fordow’s two, making it more difficult to bomb the entrances to close them off. Their depth could also put them out of reach of the US’s 30,000lb “bunker-buster” bombs, which were used against Fordow in strikes last year.
Trump last week threatened to “take out” the site during an interview with the conservative podcast host Hugh Hewitt.
The facility was a “target for a nice, big, fat shot right into the front door”, he added on the programme.
Iran has stepped up its attacks on US allies in the Gulf in recent weeks since an April ceasefire collapsed. On Tuesday the war widened further as Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels declared they would impose a “maritime embargo” against Saudi Arabia’s ports.
Four US military service members are believed to have been killed in recent days of fighting in the Middle East, with the Pentagon still to confirm the identity of one.
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Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell disclosed on Monday that “nearly 100” service members had been injured in the past two weeks alone but said most suffered from minor concussions and had returned to duty.
The mounting casualty count and sharp rise in petrol prices, which climbed back above $4 a gallon this week, have fuelled deepening domestic opposition to the war ahead of critical midterm elections in November.
Trump declined to say how long he expected it would take the US military to eliminate Iran’s ability to threaten commercial shipping through the strait without a deal.
Instead, he returned focus to Iran’s nuclear programme, which he said the US had “terminated” and “extinguished”.
“If we left right now, it would take Iran 20, 25 years to rebuild,” he said. “And we’re not finished at all.”
Source:
www.ft.com
