CNN added a significant new detail Tuesday to a Wall Street Journal report on Iran's nuclear program, saying Israel believes Tehran moved not only thousands of centrifuges but also part of its stockpile of highly enriched uranium into a fortified underground facility known as Pickaxe Mountain.
According to CNN, an Israeli source familiar with the matter said the transfer took place after the twelve day war between Israel and Iran in June 2025, and that Israeli intelligence has been monitoring the site, located south of Tehran near Natanz, for months. Iran currently holds roughly 440 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60 percent purity, just below weapons grade, and removing that stockpile has remained a central war goal for both Israel and the United States.
The Wall Street Journal was first to report Monday that Israeli and American officials believe Iran transferred thousands of uranium enrichment centrifuges into tunnels carved deep inside Pickaxe Mountain, according to intelligence Israel shared with Washington. Satellite imagery reviewed by the Journal shows the complex sits more than 300 feet beneath granite bedrock, making it considerably deeper and more fortified than the Fordow and Natanz facilities that were struck last year.
Pickaxe Mountain was not targeted during the twelve day war in June 2025, when American and Israeli strikes hit Iran's three main nuclear sites, nor has it been hit during the more intensive US-Israeli campaign that began on February 28. An Israeli defense official familiar with target selection told the Journal that last year's strikes did not sufficiently damage facilities tied to Iran's weapons program and that additional work remains, including at Pickaxe Mountain.
The report also said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pressed President Trump to resume large scale strikes on Iran as Israel's war objectives have increasingly diverged from Washington's, and that Trump has said the United States is prepared to strike the site directly. CNN reported separately that Iran has moved to seal off its uranium stockpile more broadly in recent months, deliberately collapsing tunnels and rigging entrances with explosives.
Iran has denied International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors access to Pickaxe Mountain and has not disclosed what activity is taking place there. IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi has demanded that Tehran account for the site, while satellite imagery reviewed by CNN reportedly shows continued construction activity there, a development CNN said may violate the terms of the memorandum of understanding requiring Iran to maintain the status quo. Iran maintains that the site is intended only for manufacturing and assembling centrifuges rather than active enrichment, and continues to insist its nuclear program is entirely civilian in nature.
