US President Donald Trump has publicly floated the possibility of attacking an Iranian mountain beneath which a nuclear complex is suspected, naming Kolang mountain, also known as "Pickaxe Mountain". "You could probably take a look at Pickaxe Mountain, and that has to be dealt with," Trump said. The mountain lies in Isfahan province, roughly 200 kilometres south of Tehran and close to the Natanz nuclear facility. The Iranian government denies that any nuclear programme work is taking place there.
Trump added that the United States was not rushing into further strikes. Talks on ending the Iran war were going "well", he said, though he described the Iranians as "not very reliable". US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had said earlier that Trump had not yet decided on new attacks and that Washington was open to a diplomatic solution. Rubio also said he did not know of a concrete timeframe for the Qatar-led talks aimed at ending hostilities between the US and Iran.
Iran's foreign minister, Araghtschi, said no meetings with US representatives were currently planned and that any speculation to the contrary was merely a media assumption. He did, however, officially confirm for the first time that Tehran's leadership had received a letter from US Vice President J.D. Vance. "The message of US Vice President JD Vance was carefully examined and discussed in high-level talks," Araghtschi said. If Washington's aim with the message was to sow discord, he added, that would be another misstep adding to earlier American mistakes. At the same time, he said the US side's effort to open a dialogue and reach a broader understanding was regarded as a positive step.
Separately, Iran reported that one person was injured after a US strike on two fishing boats. Iranian media also reported that Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei had threatened a response without "geographical restrictions", and the Iranian foreign minister warned of massive retaliation in the event of attacks.
Pakistan, which has been acting as a mediator, offered a guarded assessment of the latest diplomatic push. A military spokesman said the Pakistani chief negotiator, Asim Munir, would not have travelled to Tehran twice in October if there were no positive signals, describing the talks with the Iranian leadership as a good sign and saying Pakistan remained "cautiously optimistic". He added that "influential spoilers and opponents" who believed the conflict served their interests were still at work, without saying whom he meant. Munir's most recent visit to Tehran, on Monday, was accompanied by representatives from Saudi Arabia and Turkey. Qatar is also working towards de-escalation and recently presented a new proposal for settling the conflict, and Qatari negotiators have arrived in Iran.
Egypt warned of massive consequences from a new escalation, and Oman reported an attack on a merchant ship.
In Israel, the parliamentary election on 27 October has produced a deadlock. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-conservative Likud party and its bloc are ahead of the rival camp, but neither side has a clear majority to form a government. Long coalition negotiations, and possibly another election if no agreement is reached, are therefore expected. President Isaac Herzog announced talks on forming a government.
Likud has repeated its fraud allegations over the Knesset election. Party figure Karhi suggested Likud could demand that the first session of the new parliament, scheduled for 10 November, be postponed. "We cannot swear in a Knesset in which members sit whose seats were paid for by Qatar," he said. Since the vote, allegations have come from the outgoing coalition that there was fraud in favour of the so-called Arab parties and that money flowed from Qatar and Turkey to increase participation by Palestinian Israelis. The director-general of the central election committee said the investigation opened by the domestic intelligence service into possible manipulation did not concern any particular section of the population and would not change the result. The intelligence service said the investigation was "targeted and limited in scope".
An opposition politician, Golan, warned that the probability of a further confrontation with Iran was rising and that Israel was now in a situation of recurring military confrontations with Tehran. Israel's security must not become "a tool in Netanyahu's fight for his political survival", Golan wrote. The Wall Street Journal reported that Netanyahu had spoken by telephone with Trump on Saturday, against the background of US preparations to resume bombardments in Iran. There has long been speculation that the US military, together with Israel's armed forces, could attack Iran again after the US midterm elections on 3 November.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul warned against new attacks on Iran. The conflict must be "solved diplomatically, it must be solved through talks", Merz said, adding that this also applied to Israel and its future government. He said Berlin was coordinating and strengthening its diplomatic efforts "through many channels", maintained good relations with Israel and the Gulf states, and appealed for a peaceful settlement. Wadephul, speaking in Atlanta, said he saw "genuinely possibilities that this could happen after the midterms" and that the period after the midterms must be a time of more negotiations and a diplomatic initiative, since a new military round would "in no case" solve the problem. He also called on Iran to come to the negotiating table now. German politician Schuster said a change of government in Israel could make cooperation easier, pointing to ministers Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich and arguing that if such voices from government circles fell away, joint action and joint plans, including peace efforts, could be significantly easier. Germany, he said, has an indirect mediating role.
Sources: FAZ.