JERUSALEM, Israel – Iran is rebuilding parts of its ballistic missile program after U.S. and Israeli strikes damaged key facilities earlier in the conflict. At the same time, a suspected nuclear site and a major Houthi advance in Yemen are raising new concerns across the region.
Tehran’s missile production involves using stockpiled components and underground facilities while attempting to build new assembly sites designed to make future production harder to target.
U.S. and Israeli strikes had destroyed the facilities needed to make missile components, while the current blockade is making it harder for Iran to import the parts it needs.
At Jerusalem’s Western Wall on Thursday night, ahead of the civic Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that Iran is rebuilding its nuclear capability.
“President Trump announced this evening that Iran is attempting to rearm,…. This is true,” Netanyahu stated.
He stressed that Israel continues to target Iran and its regional allies, including Hamas and Hezbollah.
“We are …..delivering heavy blows not only in the Gaza Strip but also in Lebanon. We …are now dealing with the Ali Taher Ridge (in southern Lebanon).”
The prime minister also indicated that more military activity is coming.
His warnings come as the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reports construction at Iran’s Pickaxe Mountain, a site potentially connected to nuclear material.
IAEA inspectors have been denied access to sites affected by the June 2025 strikes and can’t verify the current status of Iran’s nuclear weapons-grade uranium stockpile.
President Trump, addressing the GOP Midterm Convention in Dallas, said his administration is watching the site.
“We can read it from space,” he told the crowd. “We notice there’s a little activity at Pickaxe. I would advise Iran not to get cute because we will have to hit them very hard. We have no choice, right?”
On the Arabian Peninsula, the Iranian-backed Houthis have seized control of Yemen’s port city of Mocha, which strengthened their chokehold on the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a key shipping route connecting the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden.
U.S. officials indicate that Iran has directed the Houthis to intensify attacks on Saudi Arabia and promised additional funding, weapons, and senior officers.
At the same time, approximately 100 U.S. military personnel are now operating in Saudi Arabia, part of a newly-established Joint Forces Command that shares intelligence to support Saudi attacks on the Houthis.
Washington, meanwhile, is tightening economic pressure on Iran with new sanctions targeting supporters of Hezbollah and other Iranian proxies in Iraq, Lebanon, and Turkey.
In southern Lebanon, Israel claims to have destroyed a major Hezbollah underground network approximately four miles from Israel’s border. More than 1,100 tons of explosives demolished eight tunnels spanning more than a mile.
The complex included command centers, Iranian-made weapons and rockets, and storage rooms and living quarters that allowed fighters to remain underground for long periods.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz released a video statement ahead of the Jewish New Year, 5787, saying, “To the people of Iran, I wish, next year, a Tehran liberated from oppression and tyranny…”ISRAELI DEFENSE MINISTER ISRAEL KATZ RELEASED A VIDEO STATEMENT AHEAD OF THE JEWISH NEW YEAR.
He told Iran’s leadership that any attack during the holidays would bring a powerful response, warning, “A blow would set Iran back decades and further destabilize the Ayatollahs’ regime – a regime the Iranian people loathe so deeply and whose downfall they fervently desire.”
