Iran’s Mahar news agency released footage Tuesday of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at a memorial ceremony for Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. The video surfaced one day after a New York Times investigation claimed the former president was at the center of a long-running covert Mossad operation. According to the report, Ahmadinejad was transferred to the custody of the Revolutionary Guards’ intelligence division following the exposure of his contacts with Israel and is now under house arrest.
2+According to the report, Israel worked behind the scenes to recruit Iran’s former president as a strategic intelligence asset, with the goal of eventually installing him as head of state after toppling the ayatollah regime. One of the operation’s highlights came in 2024, when Ahmadinejad was invited to an academic conference in Budapest. On paper, the event focused on the innocuous topic of climate change, but in reality it served as sophisticated cover for a series of secret meetings between him and Israeli intelligence operatives.
Former U.S. officials claimed the operation was so sensitive and of such supreme importance that then-Mossad chief Dadi Barnea personally traveled to the Hungarian capital to meet with the former president. Following the meeting, the Mossad updated the CIA that it had established direct and stable contact with the senior Iranian figure.
2+The report reveals a complex and paradoxical relationship: in recent years, Israel secretly funded part of Ahmadinejad’s travel and accommodation expenses during his trips abroad, and Mossad agents met with him on several occasions on foreign soil.
The operation reached its climax with the outbreak of war on February 28. According to four senior Iranian officials, the Israeli Air Force struck Ahmadinejad’s residential compound in Tehran, hitting the building where his security guards were staying and his armored car. Shortly after the strike, a black Peugeot arrived at the scene, picked him up, and quickly drove him to a secret safe house inside Iran.
2+American and Iranian sources involved in the details claimed the car was driven by Mossad operatives. The goal of the operation, according to the report, was to sever Ahmadinejad from the tight supervision of the Revolutionary Guards and advance the plan to topple the regime and install him as an alternative leader. But the move went awry. Ahmadinejad complained about the manner of his extraction and appeared to begin doubting the Israeli plan to return him to power. He later left the safe house under circumstances that remain unclear.
The former president wasn’t seen in public for months, until he appeared briefly at Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s funeral. According to four senior 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.