Trump Names Iran's Pickaxe Mountain as a Target After Reported Call With Netanyahu
Iran says it is debating whether to lift its ban on nuclear weapons if fighting resumes, and has warned it would strike U.S. and Israeli targets in neighboring countries.
Learn more ›JERUSALEM, Israel —
President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke by phone Saturday morning, Oct. 31, as the United States prepared to resume strikes on Iran, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the call. The Times of Israel carried the report Nov. 1.
Learn more ›Later Saturday in Palm Beach, Trump told reporters the U.S. wanted to destroy up to two more targets in Iran. “We still have to take care of, I would say, one or two sites, but we can do that in 10 minutes,” he said, and he named Pickaxe Mountain. Western intelligence has flagged the site as a likely place for storing nuclear material, and the U.S. has not struck it during the war, according to the Times of Israel.
Trump also said negotiations were “going fine” but that Iran was “not very reliable.” Iranian negotiators met Qatari mediators in Doha on Saturday, a source told Reuters, after more than 12 hours of talks between Iranian and Qatari envoys in Tehran on Friday. The source said the talks were coordinated with Washington.
See where this is ›On the Iranian side, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei ordered the armed forces Saturday to be ready to respond to any attacks. Mohsen Rezaei, whom the Times of Israel identified as head of the Supreme National Security Council, said Tehran is debating whether to lift its ban on nuclear weapons if hostilities resume, and that no decision has been made. Former Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei issued a religious ruling against developing such weapons in the early 2000s.
Rezaei also said the U.S. tone has “completely changed” after Vice President JD Vance sent a letter to Iranian officials in recent days, calling the shift “a good sign.” He said there can be no nuclear talks unless Washington accepts Iran's demands, and that the Strait of Hormuz stays closed until those conditions are met. Iranian officials said earlier Saturday they had no plans to meet U.S. officials.
See where this is ›Israel and the U.S. launched the war on Iran on Feb. 28. The U.S. has not struck Iran since Sept. 1, and Trump has pledged to hold off until after the midterm elections. MSNOW has reported that Washington told Gulf allies to prepare for possible strikes as early as Nov. 4, and Iran has said it would answer new attacks by striking U.S. and Israeli targets in neighboring countries.
What we don't know yet: Whether any strike has been ordered, or when. The call rests on unnamed sources quoted by The Wall Street Journal, which Watchman News read only through the Times of Israel, and the report we reviewed gave no account of what the two leaders said to each other.
