Trump threatens to strike Iran's nuclear site as Tehran warns of war expansion

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Trump threatens to strike Iran's nuclear site as Tehran warns of war expansion

2026-07-22 09:04 Last Updated At：15:47

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that the United States will ""probably pretty soon" launch a very heavy strike on Iran's Pickaxe Mountain underground nuclear facility, while Iran's armed forces warned early on Wednesday that any such attack will be treated as an expansion of war and all the U.S. and its allied interests in the region will become legitimate targets.

When asked by the reporters at the White House whether Iran has moved centrifuges to the Pickaxe Mountain underground nuclear facility, Trump said that the United States "don't have it on record".

"It doesn't mean anything unless they have the material. They don't have. We follow the material. That's where the action is," the U.S. president added.

The Pickaxe Mountain underground nuclear facility is located approximately 1.6 kilometers south of Iran's Natanz uranium enrichment facility and features two deeply buried tunnel complexes, making it one of Iran's most fortified underground nuclear sites.

Iran "wants to meet desperately" to end the war because it is "getting decimated," Trump said.

Meanwhile, Iran's main military command, the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, warned early on Wednesday in a statement that if the United States attacks Iran's nuclear and other sensitive sites, Tehran will expand its strikes and target the U.S. and its allies' interests across the region, Iranian state media reported.

The headquarters said the United States had threatened to attack Iran's nuclear and sensitive centers, adding that if the U.S. Army enters such a phase, Iran will consider it as an expansion of the war in the West Asia region and launch a "powerful attack" against the interests of the United States, its allies and supporters.

Japanese yen falls to 39-year low amid Middle East tensions

The Japanese yen hit 163 against the U.S. dollar in New York on Tuesday, a level unseen since December 1986, as investors sought the greenback as a safe asset amid escalating tensions in the Middle East.

The yen's slide has driven up import costs from energy to food, hitting Japan's resource‑dependent economy and millions of households.

Analysts warn that renewed hostilities in the Middle East could disrupt vital energy shipping routes and send global oil prices surging. For Japan, which relies heavily on imported fossil fuels, higher crude costs would swell the trade deficit and prompt investors to sell yen for dollars in anticipation of a worsening current account balance. Meanwhile, domestic factors are adding to the yen's weakness. The wide interest rate gap between Japan and major Western economies remains a drag, while markets expect Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's administration to press ahead with its "proactive fiscal policy," easing budget discipline. Traders see that stance as a signal for further yen depreciation.

At its lowest in nearly four decades, the yen is fueling expectations of fresh intervention by Japan's government and central bank.