Aletho News

Using nuclear weapons, the US-Israeli alliance still can’t beat Iran

By Robert Inlakesh | Al Mayadeen | November 5, 2026

While it is true that conventional weapons cannot penetrate Pickaxe Mountain Nuclear Site, there is no guarantee that using a nuclear weapon will actually yield results. Instead, the fall-out is the only thing that is certain.

The United States, at the behest of their Israeli partners, are speculated to be weighing the nuclear option against the Islamic Republic of Iran. In recent weeks, US President Donald Trump has continued to make threats against Tehran, claiming that he will even deploy the Mother of All Bombs (MOAB).

However, the target that the Trump administration and Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu appear the most obsessed with, is the facility located under Pickaxe Mountain, near the Natanz Nuclear Facility. Satellite imagery suggests that there has been significant activity at the site, at least according to US media.

All the talk of bombing this site, which Trump himself has publicly threatened to do, is predicated on the concept that Iran’s highly enriched Uranium is located at this underground facility. Based upon this assessment, there’s only one way to go about destroying that target. A MOAB is not a bunker buster munition, it is an airburst weapon, therefore officials in Washington can’t be seriously considering this as their weapon of choice.

Conventional weapons have failed to destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities and underground missile facilities, meaning that the only natural last option is a tactical nuclear weapon.

Yet, there are a number of problems with this strategy, beyond the obvious implications of using nuclear weapons in the first place. The first obvious issue is that the US and Israelis don’t actually know with any degree of certainty that Iran is storing its enriched uranium at this site, at best it is an educated guess.

The next issue they face is that tactical nuclear weapons have never been used in combat, yet alone against this specific kind of target. While hypothetically the force of the weapon would destroy the underground facility, it is also possible that the mountain will absorb a lot of the shock, meaning that what will be felt will be like an earthquake, but not necessarily enough to destroy the infrastructure.

Another major issue that the US has is that they have no idea how deep the infrastructure is actually buried underneath the mountain range. They estimate that the nuclear facility could be buried around 80-100 meters, but have no blueprints and are again guessing. No nuclear inspectors have gained access to it to inspect, so there is no way of telling for sure. It is also unknown precisely where the US, or the Israelis, would have to strike in order to have any hypothetical success.

Let us assume that the US or their Israeli partners use the nuke and still fail to destroy the facility, or that Iran’s nuclear material is not even located there, would it be worth it to deploy such a weapon? Iran has built these facilities and its missile cities, with the threat of nuclear weapons in mind, meaning that they are more than likely prepared for such an eventuality also.

The response that would come to a nuclear attack on Pickaxe Mountain would then be enormous, killing any hope of a negotiated settlement in the short term, ensuring a long and bloody war. As we have seen demonstrated since the Israeli attack on Iran in June of 2025, conventional weapons cannot destroy Iranian underground missile facilities, meaning that they would then have to use countless nuclear weapons if they hoped to penetrate them. It would then be a doomsday scenario, and every front would ignite in a way that cannot be anticipated. In addition to this, the use of these weapons is not even guaranteed to achieve their goals.

Overall, the US-Israeli alliance is not actually attacking Iran over the nuclear weapons issue; they have attempted to inflict regime change. Using nuclear weapons against nuclear sites will do nothing to achieve the overthrow of the Iranian government.

For every offensive action that Washington carries out at the behest of Tel Aviv, Tehran has an answer for it. If there was a quick and simple road to victory, Netanyahu and Trump would have already taken it.

Using nuclear weapons would be a ridiculous and reckless mistake, with potential far-stretching consequences that span much further than the scope of this article. While the third round appears inevitable, the outcome will ultimately have to be a US retreat from the region. First, it is clear that the Zionist regime must be dealt a strategic defeat in order for that to be allowed to happen.

November 5, 2026 - Posted by aletho | War Crimes, Wars for Israel | Iran, Israel, Middle East, United States, Zionism