Was Iran’s former president recruited by the Mossad? Rani Amrani, an Iran expert, addressed the question today (Tuesday) in an interview, responding to a New York Times report claiming Israel ran a covert operation involving former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. His verdict: “If this were true—they would have executed him long ago.”
4+According to Amrani, false reports and fake news in the New York Times are routine, and Ahmadinejad’s office has denied the report. “This is like a Hollywood script, it can’t be,” he said. He added that even if Israel planned such a move, it would never be accepted in Iran, since the country’s leader must have religious standing—something Ahmadinejad lacks.
“I believe the Mossad is smart enough and understands Iran well enough to know that the Iranian people oppose the entire regime, and anyone who was part of it could never be accepted as a leader,” he explained. He added that Ahmadinejad, as former president, played a role in killing and executing many regime opponents, so his hands are stained with Iranian blood—and the citizens would never accept that.
4+He continued: “There’s no logic that the Mossad would think of such a thing and gamble on a person who is almost part of the regime. I believe reports by the New York Times and also by Haaretz have political motives to harm the government in Israel.”
As reported, an investigation published yesterday in the New York Times claimed that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who called for Israel’s destruction, was at the center of a covert operation the Mossad ran for years. According to the report, Israel worked behind the scenes to recruit the former Iranian president as a strategic intelligence asset, intending to position him as the country’s future leader after toppling the ayatollah regime.
4+According to the investigation, one of the operation’s peaks occurred in 2024, when Ahmadinejad was invited to an academic conference in Budapest. On its face, the event dealt with climate change, but in practice it served as cover for secret meetings with Israeli intelligence officials. Additionally, former American administration sources claimed the operation was particularly sensitive—so much so that former Mossad chief Dadi Barnea personally traveled to the Hungarian capital to meet with the former president. Following the meeting, the CIA was briefed that direct and stable contact had been established with the Iranian official.
The report describes a complex relationship: in recent years, Israel secretly funded part of Ahmadinejad’s travel and accommodation expenses outside Iran, and Mossad agents met with him on several occasions on foreign soil.
4+According to the report, the operation reached its climax with the outbreak of war on February 28. The Israeli Air Force struck his residential compound in Tehran, hitting the building where his bodyguards were staying and his armored car. Shortly afterward, a black Peugeot arrived at the scene, picked him up, and drove him to a safe house inside Iran.
American and Iranian sources involved in the details claimed that Mossad operatives drove the vehicle. The operation’s purpose, according to the report, was to disconnect Ahmadinejad from Revolutionary Guards supervision and initiate a move to position him as an alternative leader. But the move got complicated: Ahmadinejad complained about the extraction method and began questioning the plan. He later left the safe house under unclear circumstances.
4+The former president wasn’t seen in public for months, until he appeared briefly at the funeral of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. According to four Iranian officials, after Tehran exposed some of his contacts with Israel, he was transferred to the custody of the Revolutionary Guards’ intelligence division and is currently under house arrest.