US President Donald Trump said Monday he would probably soon order a strike on the Pickaxe Mountain nuclear site, as he declared American military forces would hit Iran hard over the coming two days.

Trump’s remarks came as the US military confirmed launching strikes on Iran for a third consecutive night, while the United Aran Emirates reported early Tuesday morning that an Iranian missile attack on two of its tankers in the Strait of Hormuz killed a crew member and wounded eight others.

“We’re going to hit them very hard tonight and we’re going to hit them hard tomorrow — and there’s not a damn thing they can do about it,” Trump told conservative talk show host Hugh Hewitt. “They have nothing. They have nothing going other than they have big mouths.”

Asked about Pickaxe, which was not among the three nuclear facilities targeted by the US last year, Trump said the US was closely surveilling it.

“Pickaxe is a possible target for a nice big fat shot right near the front door,” he said.

“We see no activity there. They’re not doing well with their nuclear situation… We’ll probably give Pickaxe a shot relatively soon,” Trump added.

Satellite images released earlier this month showed recent construction and vehicle activity at Pickaxe, which is tunneled into a mountain near the main Natanz nuclear facility. The exact purpose of the site is not known, and inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency have never been granted access.

According to the Institute for Science and International Security, there has been persistent activity at Pickaxe since April, when a ceasefire was declared in the US-Israeli war with Iran. The think tank argued that any work carried out at the site violates the memorandum of understanding signed by Washington and Tehran.

In the interview Monday, Trump downplayed the importance of that MOU, saying it was just a “test” which did not mean very much because the US was dealing with dishonorable “sleaze bags” who did not adhere to its terms. Trump said he questioned why the US was entering into a deal to create a ceasefire with Iran rather than moving toward a full deal first, after declaring last week the ceasefire was “over.”

“They didn’t honor the test,” he said.

Tehran lodged a similar accusation at the US, while claiming the MOU acknowledged its control over the Strait of Hormuz, legitimizing its demand that ships crossing through the channel follow its rules.

Asked about his pledges to help Iranian anti-regime protesters and whether they should return to the streets, Trump cautioned against the idea, given that the unarmed demonstrators were no match for the regime gunmen cracking down against them.

He claimed that he never thought a popular uprising against the regime was possible, even though he declared in a speech on the first day of the war that Iran’s people should take over their government once the bombing........

© The Times of Israel