After US strikes on Iran\u2019s largest nuclear facilities last year, both US President Donald Trump and the White House were adamant that the Middle East nation\u2019s nuclear programme had been destroyed.<\/p>\n
\u201cMonumental Damage was done to all Nuclear sites in Iran, as shown by satellite images. Obliteration is an accurate term!\u201d Trump wrote on social media.<\/p>\n
\u201cIran\u2019s Nuclear Facilities Have Been Obliterated \u2013 and Suggestions Otherwise are Fake News,\u201d the White House wrote in a press release.<\/p>\n
A year later, the US and Iran are five months into a war Trump said would be over in weeks. Iran has gained leverage by seizing control of the Strait of Hormuz, a vital energy corridor, and the US has been forced to the negotiating table as global fuel prices have spiked \u2013 including again this week after a ceasefire agreement collapsed.<\/p>\n
And Trump \u2013 facing mounting criticism that he has pushed the US into another \u201cforever war\u201d despite campaigning on doing exactly the opposite \u2013 is leaning back into the notion that Iran presents an unacceptable nuclear threat and strikes are needed, namely at another Iranian nuclear facility known as Pickaxe Mountain, or Kuh-e Kolang Gaz La in Iran.<\/p>\n
\u201cPickaxe is a possible target for a nice big fat shot right near the front door,\u201d the US president recently said on \u201cThe Hugh Hewitt Show\u201d. \u201cWe\u2019re going to take out Pickaxe Mountain. Tell the Iranians to be ready.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After US strikes on Iran\u2019s largest nuclear facilities last year, both US President Donald Trump and the White…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":217573,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[656,38,34,361,37,14209,49,11742,56566,101,62892,62893,153,6796,1537],"class_list":["post-217572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-iran","tag-associated-press","tag-donald-trump","tag-iran","tag-iranian","tag-israel","tag-khatam-al-anbiya-central-headquarters","tag-middle-east","tag-natanz","tag-pickaxe-mountain","tag-strait-of-hormuz","tag-the-hugh-hewitt-show","tag-ucla-burkle-centre-for-international-relations","tag-us","tag-wall-street-journal","tag-white-house"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116961918525621542","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217572"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217572\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/217573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}