To enable Ahmadinejad to seize power in Iran, Israel and the US destroyed guards holding him under house arrest

As writes The New York Times, even in the early days of the war, Donald Trump publicly stated that Iran should be ruled by "someone from within the country." But few could have imagined that he was referring specifically to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad — the former president of Iran, one of the toughest and most anti-Western leaders in the country's history.

Why Ahmadinejad?

As the author notes, the choice of Ahmadinejad seemed extremely strange. Although he had increasingly conflicted with the country's leadership recently and was under close surveillance by Iranian authorities, during his presidency from 2005 to 2013, he was known for calls to "wipe Israel off the map of the world." Ahmadinejad denied the Holocaust, claimed there were "no gays" in Iran, spoke at the "World Without Zionism" conference, and brutally suppressed internal protests.

At the same time, in recent years, Ahmadinejad increasingly conflicted with the Iranian leadership. He was barred from presidential elections three times — in 2017, 2021, and 2024. He openly accused the authorities of corruption and mismanagement, and his movements were heavily restricted. The regime began to consider him a potentially destabilizing element.

According to the author, this is precisely what made him interesting to the US and Israel. American officials said that there were people within the Iranian regime ready to cooperate with Washington, even if they could not be called "moderates." Trump himself was satisfied at the time with the operation against Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and believed that a similar model could be replicated in Iran.

An associate of Ahmadinejad told the NYT that the Americans saw in him a person capable of controlling the "political, social, and military situation" in Iran. The interlocutor even compared him to Delcy Rodríguez, who took power in Venezuela after Maduro's capture by the Americans and has since closely cooperated with Trump.

A Daring Plan

According to US officials, the Israelis developed a multi-stage scenario for overthrowing the theocratic rule in Iran. It included massive US and Israeli airstrikes, the assassination of the country's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the use of Kurdish forces against the Iranian army, information operations, and creating the impression that the regime was losing control over the country. As a result, it was assumed, an "alternative government" was supposed to emerge in Iran.

The former president of Iran was one of the key figures in this plan. As the NYT claims, citing American sources, this idea was developed by the Israelis and pre-agreed with Ahmadinejad himself.

As the NYT notes, the Israeli strike on the former Iranian president's home in Tehran on the first day of the war was not intended to kill him, but to free him from custody.

The strike targeted a guard post at the entrance to a dead-end street where the former president lived. The house itself was largely unharmed, but the guard building was destroyed — this was later confirmed by satellite imagery.

According to the NYT, not just Ahmadinejad's bodyguards were killed, but members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps who were simultaneously guarding him and effectively holding him under house arrest. Initially, reports of the former president's death even appeared in Iranian media, but state agencies later clarified that he had survived.

A March article in The Atlantic magazine, citing anonymous associates of Ahmadinejad, stated that the former president was successfully freed from custody after the strike on his home. The article described it as an "effective prison break operation." This information was also confirmed by an associate of Ahmadinejad in a comment to the NYT: the ex-president indeed perceived the strike as an attempt to free him.

Failure

However, the operation did not go according to plan. Ahmadinejad was wounded during the strike. As the NYT writes, citing an associate of the former Iranian president, having come within an inch of death, he became disillusioned with the regime change plan.

Despite being effectively freed, Ahmadinejad has not appeared publicly since the strike. His current whereabouts and health status remain unknown.

Павялічыць

As the NYT concludes, almost nothing from the Israeli plan succeeded. Besides the airstrikes and the elimination of the supreme leader, the other elements of the operation failed. The Iranian regime withstood the first months of the war, and the US and Israeli calculations for a quick collapse of power proved to be mistaken.

Nevertheless, Mossad chief David Barnea claimed in conversations with colleagues that the plan still had "very high chances of success" if it had been allowed to be fully implemented.

As the NYT writes, it remains unclear how Ahmadinejad was drawn into this plan. A Mossad spokesperson declined to comment.

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