Carlson Alleges Netanyahu Is Urging a Nuclear Strike on Iran

US response and reported pressure for a strike

Responding after Carlson's post on X, a White House official said the administration would not discuss sensitive military plans, whether or not such plans exist. The official also said Trump retains all options to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, according to InvestingLive.

Two days earlier, on Saturday, October 31, Trump told reporters at Mar-a-Lago that US attacks had largely destroyed Iran's nuclear and military capabilities. He said one or two sites still needed to be dealt with, identified Pickaxe Mountain and said the task could be completed "in 10 minutes." But he also said talks with Iran were going fine and that he felt little urgency to act, even as he described Tehran as unreliable.

Axios reported, citing Israeli and US sources, that Trump and Netanyahu had a tense phone conversation that Saturday. Its account said Netanyahu wanted a strike immediately after Tuesday's US midterm elections, while Trump preferred to give negotiations more time. That report concerned pressure for a strike, not confirmation of Carlson's nuclear-strike allegation.

Carlson's account

In the post, covered by Times of India and cited by Republika, Carlson said a nuclear attack could be days away. He identified Pickaxe Mountain in central Iran as the prospective target, describing it as a suspected storage location for uranium enriched to 60% purity. He argued that US conventional weapons could not penetrate 300 feet of granite at the site.

Carlson attributed his account of Netanyahu's lobbying to an unnamed observer, whom he quoted as saying, "Bibi calls Trump about it every day." He also said observers close to the situation expected Trump to decide by November 7 whether to use nuclear weapons.

Carlson linked the alleged pressure to Netanyahu's political position after the previous week's Israeli election. He argued that Netanyahu would struggle to assemble a government without Trump's direct intervention and could face investigations or imprisonment if he lost office. "He needs this war," Carlson wrote.

His allegations extended to other officials. Carlson said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, CENTCOM commander Brad Cooper, Rubio and CIA Director John Ratcliffe were following Netanyahu's lead on Iran. He also claimed former President Barack Obama opposed the peace agreement being drafted in Doha, Qatar.

Carlson further alleged that Netanyahu secretly traveled to Abu Dhabi on September 27 to seek Emirati backing for a final attack on Iran, but was turned down. He provided no verified evidence for his account.

Carlson has broken publicly with Trump over the Iran war. InvestingLive reported that he previously said Trump should have been removed from office for threatening to use nuclear weapons.

The disputed underground site

Pickaxe Mountain, known in Persian as Kuh-e Kolang Gaz La, stands in the Karkas range in Iran's Isfahan province, about 1.5 kilometers south of the Natanz nuclear complex. Work on an underground facility began in fall 2020 following explosions near Natanz. Iran says the facility is intended to manufacture and assemble advanced centrifuges.

Wikipedia's account of the site describes two pairs of tunnel entrances and main halls believed to lie more than 100 meters (330 feet) below the granite. Weapons experts have questioned whether the US arsenal's largest conventional bunker-buster, the 30,000-pound (14,000-kilogram) GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator, could destroy a facility at that depth beneath granite. Pickaxe Mountain was not hit in earlier attacks on Iranian nuclear sites in June 2025 or in 2026.

Israeli intelligence officials assessed on July 21, 2026, that Iran might have transferred some enriched uranium to the mountain, according to reporting summarized in Wikipedia's reference record. The allegation remains independently unverified, and inspectors have never received access to the facility.

Iran denies nuclear activity at Pickaxe Mountain. Mehdi Mohammadi, an adviser to Iran's parliamentary speaker, has nevertheless described it as "the most heavily fortified nuclear facility in the world" and warned that attacking it would "turn the region into hell."

Talks through Qatar

Diplomatic contacts have continued alongside the discussion of military action. According to InvestingLive, Iranian officials have been meeting with Qatari mediators about a proposal that Tehran says could allow the Strait of Hormuz to reopen within two days, provided Washington meets its conditions.

Iran's security chief has also described a recent letter from Vice President JD Vance as a sign of a more positive US tone.