President Donald Trump’s intelligence community has concluded that Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, is far more inclined than his father to pursue nuclear weapons, raising concerns that Tehran’s long-term nuclear ambitions may have hardened despite the devastating damage inflicted on its atomic program.
The assessment, first reported Friday by the New York Times and based largely on intelligence collected before the current war, found Mojtaba significantly less hesitant than his father and predecessor, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, about pursuing a nuclear weapon, according to U.S. officials briefed on the intelligence.
Mojtaba assumed Iran’s highest office after his father was killed during the opening strikes of Operation Epic Fury. The younger Khamenei was reportedly seriously injured in the attack and has not been seen or heard from publicly since taking power, with officials telling the Times that his limited communications have made assessing his current intentions more difficult.
U.S. officials said they have seen no evidence that Iran has resumed nuclear enrichment or weaponization efforts since the conflict began. Instead, they believe Tehran has concentrated on preserving surviving nuclear assets and expertise that could eventually allow it to revive the program.
Rather than immediately rebuilding the facilities destroyed or heavily damaged during the war, Iran has reportedly sought to protect surviving components of its nuclear infrastructure, including equipment believed to have been moved toward the heavily fortified Pickaxe Mountain complex near Natanz.
The undeclared underground facility has emerged as a major concern for Washington and Jerusalem following the destruction of Iran’s principal nuclear sites at Natanz, Fordow, and Isfahan during Operation Midnight Hammer in June.
Reporting earlier this week indicated that Iran may have moved advanced centrifuge equipment toward the mountain complex, while CNN separately reported that U.S. officials believe portions of Tehran’s highly enriched uranium stockpile may have survived the U.S. and Israeli bombing campaign.
The fortified site is believed to contain tunnels extending deeper underground than those at Fordow, the heavily damaged enrichment facility long considered among Iran’s most difficult nuclear targets. American and Israeli officials are reportedly concerned that surviving equipment, nuclear material, and personnel could eventually be consolidated inside the mountain if Tehran decides to rebuild its program.
Trump highlighted the site last week while warning that the United States retained additional military options against Iran.
“We’re not finished at all,” Trump said when asked about Pickaxe Mountain, as Breitbart News previously reported. Asked when the United States might strike the facility, the president replied, “Pretty soon,” while adding that Washington had initially sought to give Tehran an opportunity to reach an agreement.
The growing focus on the hardened complex comes as American military planners have reportedly examined an extraordinary contingency operation to secure Iran’s remaining enriched uranium should diplomacy ultimately fail.
According to a New York Post report published Saturday, the operation could require ground forces to establish a perimeter, followed by military engineers, special operations personnel, and ordnance specialists tasked with reaching and safely extracting nuclear material from the fortified location.
“I think this would be one of the most, if not the most, sophisticated operations in military history,” retired Army Lt. Gen. Joseph Rodgers told the newspaper.
Rodgers said the mission would be “logistically heavy and difficult,” potentially requiring a large ground presence as well as personnel capable of identifying, handling, and transporting enriched uranium from deep inside the underground complex.
Former National Security Council official Richard Goldberg said any retrieval operation would require U.S. forces to secure the surrounding territory, protect convoys carrying the nuclear material, and prepare for booby traps or other defenses placed inside the facility.
Goldberg also distinguished between a mission intended merely to destroy the site and one designed to recover the nuclear material believed to be stored there, with the latter posing substantially greater operational and logistical challenges.
The reported planning reflects concern that additional airstrikes against the fortified mountain may not, by themselves, ensure that any enriched uranium, centrifuge components, or other surviving assets stored inside are permanently removed from Iran’s control.
The reporting does not establish that Tehran has transferred its uranium stockpile to Pickaxe Mountain, that the site is fully operational, or that Trump has approved a ground operation. Rather, the contingency planning is reportedly among the military options under consideration if negotiations fail and officials determine that Iran is attempting to preserve or reconstitute its nuclear capabilities inside the undeclared complex.
Trump has repeatedly insisted that Iran “cannot have a nuclear weapon,” while maintaining that he would prefer a negotiated resolution if Tehran accepts Washington’s demands.
“Look, we’re locked and loaded,” Trump told reporters Friday. “We’re ready to go, but we’re talking to them, so maybe there will be, maybe there won’t be a tipping point.”
The intelligence assessment underscores that, although U.S. officials have not detected a renewed Iranian enrichment or weaponization effort, Washington’s concern increasingly extends beyond the facilities already destroyed to whether Iran’s new leadership is more willing to preserve and eventually rebuild the program—and whether the hardened mountain complex could provide it the means to do so.
Joshua Klein is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @JoshuaKlein.
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