How Israel's Plan To Bring Iran Ex-President Ahmadinejad To Power Failed

Former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, once known as one of Israel's fiercest critics, was secretly cultivated by Israeli intelligence for years as part of a plan to make him a future leader of Iran, according to a report.

American, Iranian and former intelligence officials claimed that Israel's spy agency, Mossad, tried to build a relationship with Ahmadinejad after he fell out with Iran's current leadership, The New York Times reported.

Ahmadinejad's relationship with Iranian leadership became strained after he left office in 2013. He was stopped from contesting the presidential election three times and gradually began criticising some of Iran's leaders, the report stated.

He believed he could return to power only if the current political system changed. It is said that Israeli intelligence began contacting him after seeing this as an opportunity.

The report claimed that one of the secret meetings took place in Budapest, Hungary, in 2024. Ahmadinejad received an invitation to speak at a Ludovika University conference on climate change. However, Gergely Deli, the rector of the university, told the newspaper that Ahmadinejad and Israeli intelligence personnel had secret discussions during the conference.

In 2025, Ahmadinejad returned to Hungary and apparently met with Mossad officials again. David Barnea, the head of the Mossad at the time, even went to Budapest to see Ahmadinejad, according to former US officials who spoke to the newspaper. Ahmadinejad's travel and lodging during these meetings were allegedly secretly funded by Israel, the report states.

"Ahmadinejad would not do this for money. He has money; he has a wide economic network. He would do it for power. He wants to be at the helm of power," said Abdolreza Davari, a former close associate and senior adviser of Ahmadinejad.

The report said the operation reached its final stage during the early days of the US-Israel war on Iran this year. It claimed an Israeli airstrike hit Ahmadinejad's compound in Tehran. Soon after the strike, a black Peugeot car allegedly driven by Mossad operatives took him to a secret safe house inside Iran.

However, the plan did not succeed. According to the report, Ahmadinejad became unhappy with the operation and lost faith in Israel's larger plan to return him to power. He later left the safe house under unclear circumstances.

Iranian authorities later discovered Ahmadinejad's alleged contacts with Israel. It said he was now under house arrest and being watched by the intelligence wing of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

After leaving the safe house, Ahmadinejad completely disappeared from public view. He was not seen anywhere for several months. He finally appeared in public last Monday, when he briefly attended the funeral procession of Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Neither Israeli officials nor Mossad have commented on the allegations. Ahmadinejad's spokesman also declined to comment.