Trump Says Remaining Iran Nuclear Sites Can Be Hit in 10 Minutes as Khamenei Warns of Immediate Response

US President Donald Trump said on Saturday night that the United States could strike the remaining Iranian nuclear sites “in 10 minutes”, while insisting he was in no hurry to resume military action and that negotiations to end the war were continuing. The warning, delivered to reporters at a Halloween party at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, drew an immediate counter-warning from Iran, whose supreme leader said any new threat would be met with a response without geographical limits.

Trump said American forces had already knocked out much of Iran’s military and nuclear programme, but that “one or two sites” remained. Naming Pickaxe Mountain, a suspected underground nuclear complex, he said the United States could deal with it very quickly. The Iranian government has denied that any nuclear work is carried out at the site.

What Trump Actually Said

Speaking to reporters at Mar-a-Lago on Saturday, October 31, Trump said: “We’ve knocked out their nuclear. We still have to take care of, I would say one or two sites, but we can do that in 10 minutes.” He added, referring to Pickaxe Mountain: “You probably could look at Pickaxe Mountain, and you have to take care of that. We can do that all very quickly.”

Those remarks should be read as the president’s own claims about the state of Iran’s programme, not as independently verified assessments. Trump also repeated that Iran will never have a nuclear weapon, and said Tehran wanted to make a deal. He said the United States had already decimated Iran’s military and nuclear programme, which, in his telling, is why Washington was not in a hurry to take offensive action.

We’ve knocked out their nuclear. We still have to take care of, I would say one or two sites, but we can do that in 10 minutes.

Diplomacy Still Open, Decision Not Made

Earlier on Saturday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Trump had not made a decision about whether to resume strikes on Iran, and that the United States would prefer a diplomatic resolution. That framing sits alongside the president’s warning: pressure and negotiation at the same time, days before the US midterm elections on November 3.

Trump has in recent days suggested that fresh military action could come after the midterms. Washington has also been reported to have briefed Israel’s prime minister on plans for possible renewed strikes, according to the Wall Street Journal, and to have told Gulf Arab countries to prepare for a possible escalation. Our earlier coverage looked at how the US military chief briefed Trump on Iran strike options as those deliberations unfolded.

Iran’s Counter-Warning

Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei warned the United States and Israel on Saturday against launching a new offensive. He said any level or type of threat must be met with an immediate, impactful and geographically unrestricted response, and ordered commanders to update Iran’s target list to include all types of tangible and intangible assets belonging to what he called the American-Zionist enemy.

The remarks were reported from a meeting with military chiefs, described as the first reported meeting of its kind since Khamenei took the helm in March, after his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed in US-Israeli strikes. Iran’s security chief Mohsen Rezaei also described a recent letter from US Vice President JD Vance as a sign of Tehran’s success, although he said he had not responded to it.

Separately, Iranian army spokesman Mohammad Akraminia warned on Sunday, according to Iranian state television, that any renewed conflict could last longer than the previous war, and that the American president would not be in a position to dictate the timing or conditions of its conclusion.

• Trump named Pickaxe Mountain as a suspected underground nuclear complex that still needed to be dealt with.
• Rubio said no decision had been made on resuming strikes, with diplomacy still preferred.
• Khamenei ordered Iran’s target list updated to cover US and Israeli assets of all kinds.
• The war, begun by the United States and Israel in February, is approaching its ninth month.

Why the Timing Matters

The exchange lands in a region already on edge. The war begun by the United States and Israel in February has now run for eight months, and efforts to reach a lasting settlement have repeatedly stalled. Rising oil prices driven by attacks on Saudi Arabia have shown how quickly Middle East escalation feeds into global markets, while Israel’s own election season has kept security at the centre of politics, as seen when Netanyahu warned Iran could try to disrupt Israel’s election.

For now, both sides are talking about war while also talking about a deal. Trump says negotiations are going fine but unreliable; Khamenei says threats will be answered immediately. Neither side has announced a new strike, and Rubio’s statement leaves the door open to diplomacy. What has changed is the bluntness of the public language: a ten-minute warning on one side, and a geographically unrestricted response on the other.

What to Watch Next

What to watch next is what the article has already set out: whether Trump makes a decision on renewed strikes after the November 3 midterms, whether negotiations produce anything beyond the current warnings, whether Iran updates its target list in any visible way, and whether the war that began in February eases toward a settlement or escalates again. Until those questions are answered, the ten-minute warning stands as both a threat and a negotiating signal.