Trump says US could strike Iran's Pickaxe Mountain if diplomacy fails

Update, 3 November, 09:08 Israel time

Further reporting on the same Fox interview indicates that Trump tied a possible strike on Pickaxe Mountain to the outcome of diplomacy. News.co.il reported that Trump said the US could move against the site if diplomatic efforts fail, following Operation Midnight Hammer, which he described as having hit Iran's main nuclear facilities. The outlet quoted him as saying the US could act within an hour, whenever it chose.

Abu Ali Express carried a longer passage from the interview in which Trump disputed that the US is at war with Iran. In the outlet's Hebrew rendering, he asked when Americans had last seen the US fighting Iran or firing anything, compared the situation with the First and Second World Wars, and called it a war of very low intensity rather than a real war. He also said the US had spent 30 billion dollars on the conflict with Iran and described that sum as small money.

The Abu Ali Express version of the Pickaxe Mountain remark matches the earlier N12 account: a strike may be needed, it would be no big deal, and it could be done in a single hour. Neither new report includes a response from Iran, Israel or the Pentagon, and neither says when the interview was recorded. All quotations here are our translation of Hebrew renderings, not a transcript.

The story as first reported

US President Donald Trump has said the United States might have to attack the Iranian site known as Pickaxe Mountain, adding that doing so would not be a problem. Ynet carried the remark in a breaking news alert, quoting Trump as saying a strike on the site may become necessary and that this was not an issue.

N12, the news service of one of Israel's main commercial television channels, reported that the comments were made in an interview with Fox. According to N12's foreign desk, Trump went further than the line carried by Ynet, saying the US could carry out such an attack within an hour. Neither outlet reported any further detail from the interview in its alert.

What Trump said

The two reports agree on the core of the remark: that a US strike on Pickaxe Mountain might be needed and that Trump described it as no problem. The version reported by N12 adds the claim about timing, that the operation could be done within an hour. The Ynet alert does not include that line, though it points readers to a fuller report on the Ynet website. The difference appears to reflect how much of the quote each outlet chose to carry rather than a conflict between the accounts.

Both outlets reported the remark in Hebrew. The English wording in this article is our translation of their Hebrew rendering, not a transcript of what Trump said on air, so his exact words in English may differ.

The site in question

Pickaxe Mountain is the English name for the Iranian site Trump referred to. In Hebrew, both outlets used a direct translation of that name, Har HaMakosh. The reports themselves do not describe the site, explain what is located there, or say why Trump believes it could become a target.

Remarks by a US president about possible military action against a specific Iranian site are closely followed in Israel, which regards Iran as its principal adversary. The reports do not link the comment to any particular development, decision or deadline.

Who reported it

Ynet is the news website of the Yedioth Ahronoth group, one of Israel's largest media organisations. N12 is the digital news brand of a major Israeli commercial broadcaster. Both published the remark as short alerts on their Telegram news channels, which Israeli outlets use to push breaking headlines to subscribers before fuller articles are posted.

N12 attributed the remark to its foreign desk and identified Fox as the broadcaster that conducted the interview. Ynet's alert did not name the outlet.

What the reports do not say

The alerts do not give the context of the question Trump was answering, whether he was describing a plan or a hypothetical, or what conditions might lead to a strike. They do not include any response from Iran, from the Israeli government or from the Pentagon, and they do not say when the interview was recorded or aired.