Trump Threatens Strikes on Alleged New Iranian Nuclear Site, Citing US Media and Israeli Intelligence

WASHINGTON, July 21. The United States intends to strike at Iran's alleged new nuclear facility, US President Donald Trump said.

"We will absolutely attack. The new site that they're talking about," he said, referring to US media sources. "They're trying to possibly reconstitute a site. We'll hit that site. Any site where they're even thinking about nuclear, we'll be hitting it very, very powerfully now."

When asked whether the Iranian authorities have moved nuclear centrifuges into Pickaxe Mountain, he admitted that the United States doesn’t know this for sure. "I think that they don't have it on record. All we do is read the fake news," he said, adding, however, that the Iranians might have done this. "Maybe this one they have right," he noted. In any case, in his words, Iran currently has no nuclear material enough to make weapons. "It (potential or actual relocation of centrifuges - TASS) doesn't mean anything unless they have the material. They don't have. We follow the material," he emphasized.

"We'll be hitting that area very probably pretty soon. And there's not a thing they can do about it. You know, normally I wouldn't say that. If I think they can do something about it, I would never say that. But we'll be hitting that area pretty soon, and very heavily," he warned.

Israel’s actions

The Wall Street Journal reported earlier that Israel was trying to persuade the United States to resume full-scale military operations against Iran to further degrade its missile capabilities and totally eliminate facilities linked to its nuclear program. Thus, Israeli intelligence agencies provided the United States with information about Iran’s alleged relocation of uranium enrichment centrifuges to underground tunnels beneath Mount Pickaxe near Natanz. According to Israeli intelligence, the tunnels at this location are 140 meters deep. Israeli leadership expects this information to push Washington to launch a more powerful wave of strikes.

The United States and Israel launched a war against Iran on February 28. In June, Washington and Tehran signed a memorandum of understanding envisaging an immediate ceasefire on all fronts, including in Lebanon. However, the United States resumed large-scale attacks on Iran overnight to July 8, having accused it of breaching the existing agreements in what concerned the Strait of Hormuz.