Trump could hit Pickaxe Mountain, declare victory and end the war

Résumé détaillé

Iran has become a test of Donald Trump’s credibility at home as well as his power abroad. The war and rising fuel prices contributed to the Republican defeat in the recent…

Iran has become a test of Donald Trump’s credibility at home as well as his power abroad.

The war and rising fuel prices contributed to the Republican defeat in the recent congressional elections. That gives the president a stronger political reason to find an ending to the conflict that he can present as a success.

On November 9, President Trump said he wanted to keep the war at “status quo”, but warned that American forces were “locked and loaded” should circumstances change.

One mountain near Iran’s main nuclear complex sits at the centre of America’s conundrum. Trump has repeatedly threatened Pickaxe Mountain, saying in October that the US could destroy it quickly. The gap between that promise and what a strike could achieve deserves attention.

Pickaxe Mountain is the English nickname for Kūh-e Kolang Gaz Lā, a 1,600m tall (5,200ft) peak located around one mile south of the Natanz nuclear complex in central Iran. Experts believe it hosts a nuclear facility, but it is thought to be much deeper than Natanz.

According to experts, the complex is located between 80m and 100m underground. This makes it more difficult to destroy than other sites associated with Tehran’s nuclear programme.

The decision to build a complex at Pickaxe Mountain followed a series of explosions across Iran in 2020. These damaged alleged missile sites, power plants and other facilities. The causes remain unclear.

One blast, on July 2, 2020, damaged a workshop at the Natanz nuclear complex that was used for assembling centrifuges. These centrifuges are containers used to produce enriched uranium.

The uranium can be used for civilian nuclear power plants, but is also a component in nuclear weapons. In September of that year, the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization said the workshop’s replacement would be built “in the heart” of Pickaxe Mountain.

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