Washington (Somalia Today) — Israel spent years grooming former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as an intelligence asset and possible replacement for Iran’s leadership, The New York Times reported Monday.
Israeli operatives held secret meetings with him abroad and helped cover some of his housing and travel costs, according to American and Iranian officials cited by the newspaper.
The unlikely relationship reached its most dramatic point in February, when Mossad operatives reportedly removed Ahmadinejad from his Tehran compound and drove him to a secret safe house during the opening days of the US-Israeli war on Iran.
But the wider operation collapsed before Israel could move him permanently beyond Iranian control or put him forward as the leader of a new government.
Ahmadinejad later left the safe house in circumstances that remain unclear. Four senior Iranian officials told the Times that the intelligence wing of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps now holds him under house arrest.
The operation marked an extraordinary reversal for a politician once regarded as one of Israel’s fiercest enemies.
During his presidency from 2005 to 2013, Ahmadinejad repeatedly attacked Israel, questioned the Holocaust and accelerated Iran’s uranium enrichment programme.
Years later, Israeli intelligence began to view him as a possible vehicle for regime change after his relationship with Iran’s ruling establishment sharply deteriorated, the Times reported.
Neither Israel nor Iran has publicly confirmed the operation.
Mossad did not respond to the newspaper’s requests for comment. Ahmadinejad’s spokesman, Ali Akbar Javanfekr, also declined to comment.
Budapest meetings
A university in Hungary provided cover for some of the most important contacts, according to the Times.
In early 2024, a senior Hungarian government official approached Gergely Deli, rector of Ludovika University of Public Service in Budapest.
The official asked him to organise a climate change conference and invite Ahmadinejad.
Deli said the official told him that the event would provide cover for secret talks between the former Iranian president and Israeli intelligence operatives.
He knew the invitation could damage his reputation and that of the university. But he believed the meetings might help prevent bloodshed.
“You have two enemies, and if these enemies want to talk with each other, then it’s best to do what you can to make them talk,” Deli told the Times.
Ahmadinejad travelled to Budapest in 2024.
David Barnea, then the head of Mossad, also travelled to the Hungarian capital and met him personally, according to former American officials cited by the newspaper.
Mossad later informed the CIA that it had established contact with Ahmadinejad, the officials said.
Israeli operatives met him abroad on several occasions and secretly helped pay some of his housing and travel expenses.
Ahmadinejad returned to Budapest in June 2025, days before Israel launched a war against Iran.
Iranian bodyguards travelling with him reported that he twice slipped away from his security detail and disappeared for lengthy meetings.
When they confronted him, Ahmadinejad said he had met university professors, according to Iranian officials familiar with the guards’ report.
At the university, he delivered a lecture in English about “shared humanity” and a “changing world order”.
Deli later described himself as a “Strohmann” — a German word meaning frontman or puppet — in the arrangements surrounding the visits.
Political comeback
Israeli intelligence closely followed Ahmadinejad’s growing conflict with Iran’s ruling establishment, according to officials cited by the Times.
After leaving office, he toned down the anti-Israel rhetoric that had defined his presidency and began presenting himself as a populist critic of the political elite.
He accused senior officials of corruption and criticised security forces over violent crackdowns.
He also held daily meetings with ordinary Iranians seeking help navigating the government bureaucracy.
Ahmadinejad abandoned his oversized khaki windbreaker, began wearing tailored suits, groomed his beard and started learning English.
But the changes did not end his political ambitions.
He retained support among sections of Iran’s working class and rural population and travelled widely to maintain his political network.
Iran’s Guardian Council repeatedly blocked his attempts to return to the presidency, disqualifying him from the 2017, 2021, and 2024 elections.
An associate in Ahmadinejad’s inner circle told the Times that the former president concluded he could not return to power while the existing system remained intact.
He reportedly told confidants that he hoped to become Iran’s future leader with support from foreign powers.
Ahmadinejad described himself as someone who could play a role similar to former Russian president Boris Yeltsin during the collapse of the Soviet system, the associate said.
He also allegedly said that Iran would recognise Israel and join the Abraham Accords if he returned to power.
Abdolreza Davari, a former close associate and senior adviser who later fell out with Ahmadinejad, said political ambition, rather than money, would have driven him.
“Ahmadinejad would not do this for money,” Davari told the Times.
“He would do it for power. He wants to be at the helm of power.”
Growing suspicions
Iranian intelligence officials had begun to suspect Ahmadinejad’s foreign contacts before this year’s war.
Their concerns grew after he sent public letters to US President Donald Trump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
They also closely watched his travel to countries with strong ties to Israel.
Iranian officials said Israeli operatives may have made contact with Ahmadinejad during a 2023 visit to Guatemala, where he attended an environmental conference.
Iranian security forces initially stopped him from boarding his flight.
Ahmadinejad staged an hours-long sit-in at Tehran airport, drawing attention from travellers and airport staff, before authorities eventually allowed him to leave.
Secret extraction
The relationship entered its most ambitious phase on February 28, during the opening days of the US-Israeli war on Iran.
An Israeli air strike hit Ahmadinejad’s compound and targeted a building used by his bodyguards as well as his armoured vehicle, according to four senior Iranian officials cited by the Times.
A black Peugeot arrived shortly afterwards, collected Ahmadinejad and sped away from the scene.
American and Iranian officials familiar with the operation said Mossad operatives drove the car and took him to a secret safe house inside Iran.
The extraction temporarily freed him from Revolutionary Guard surveillance.
Israel planned to prepare him for a possible leadership role if the Iranian government collapsed.
But Ahmadinejad reportedly became angry over the chaotic operation and began to lose faith in the Israeli plan to return him to power.
He eventually left the safe house.
It remains unclear whether he walked away voluntarily, rejected the plan or fell back into Iranian custody.
Iranian intelligence agencies later pieced together much of his alleged relationship with Israel, the Times reported.
Four senior Iranian officials said the Revolutionary Guard’s intelligence wing placed him under house arrest.
Ahmadinejad remained out of public view until last Monday, when he briefly appeared during the funeral procession for slain supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Video showed him standing silently with his head lowered as security personnel surrounded him.
Wider plan fails
The Ahmadinejad operation formed part of a broader Israeli strategy to topple Iran’s government.
Another element involved arming and training Iranian Kurdish opposition forces based in northern Iraq.
The fighters were expected to cross into western Iran, seize territory and eventually move towards Tehran.
But the operation never materialised.
Tamir Hayman, a former head of Israeli military intelligence, acknowledged in May that Ahmadinejad had formed part of a wider sequence of planned missions.
“There was a sequence of special operations, very, very unique, that was supposed to happen,” Hayman told the PBS programme Firing Line.
“And Ahmadinejad was part of that sequence.”
The operation did not fail at the cultivation stage.
Israel had already established contact with Ahmadinejad, met him repeatedly and positioned him as a possible political asset.
What failed was the far more ambitious plan to remove him from Iranian control and install one of Israel’s former arch-enemies as the leader of a new Iran.
