The United States and Israel planned to install Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran’s hardline former president, as the country’s leader following a regime collapse, according to reports released this week by The New York Times and Israeli media outlets. The ambitious scheme included a recruitment campaign spanning years and involved Israel’s top spy chief meeting Ahmadinejad personally to secure his cooperation in a post-war government.
An Israeli strike on the first day of the US-Israel war in February 2026 was designed to free Ahmadinejad from house arrest in Tehran, according to U.S. officials cited by The New York Times. The strike targeted his residence in the Narmak district, intended to kill the guards holding him under confinement and enable his escape. However, the plan backfired—Ahmadinejad was injured in the operation and never fully embraced the regime-change scenario the two countries had envisioned for him.
Recruiting Ahmadinejad was of such priority for Israel that then-Mossad Director David Barnea traveled to Budapest in 2024 to meet him personally, according to reporting by The Times of Israel and other outlets. Barnea, who led the Israeli intelligence agency from June 2021 to June 2026, engaged Ahmadinejad as a potential asset for the planned transition. The two met again in Budapest in June 2025, days before Israel launched its opening strikes on Iran, according to The New York Times.
Plan Unravels as Iran Discovers Contacts
The scheme has now collapsed after Iran’s authorities uncovered Ahmadinejad’s secret contacts with Israeli intelligence. As of this week, the former president is under house arrest, held by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ intelligence branch, according to reports from The Jerusalem Post and The New York Times citing four senior Iranian officials. Iran’s discovery of his communications with Israel represents a dramatic reversal for a figure who once built his presidency on virulent opposition to the Jewish state.
The irony of the plan was stark: Ahmadinejad, a Holocaust denier known for extreme anti-Israeli rhetoric during his 2005-2013 presidency, was being positioned by Israel and the US as a potential post-regime leader—a choice that drew criticism from multiple quarters. The Guardian reported that Ahmadinejad would have been an unlikely ally for Israeli leadership given his historical positions, yet the two governments pursued the recruitment effort as part of a broader regime-change strategy.
The original plan envisioned a multistage collapse of the Iranian government beginning with US-Israeli aerial strikes, according to reporting by i24NEWS and other outlets. After the regime’s fall, Ahmadinejad was to be installed as a transitional or permanent leader. But the plan’s early failure—his injury on the war’s first day and his subsequent disillusionment—meant the US and Israel never achieved this central objective of their military campaign.
Sources
- The New York Times — Initial May 2026 report on the plan to install Ahmadinejad; July 2026 detailed investigation of the recruitment effort and Barnea’s meetings with Ahmadinejad in Budapest
- The Times of Israel — Reporting on the multi-year recruitment effort, Ahmadinejad’s meetings with Mossad chief Barnea, and his current house arrest status
- The Guardian — May 2026 coverage of the airstrike aimed at freeing Ahmadinejad from house arrest and analysis of his unlikely role in the plan
- The Jerusalem Post — Reporting on Ahmadinejad’s current house arrest and Iran’s discovery of his Israeli contacts
- i24NEWS — Coverage of the multistage plan and Ahmadinejad’s injuries on the first day of the war
- Al Jazeera — Reporting that Ahmadinejad became disillusioned with the regime-change plan despite escaping house arrest
