Israel secretly spent years cultivating former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as a potential replacement for the Islamic Republic’s leadership in the event of regime change, according to an explosive report published Monday by The New York Times.

Citing senior American and Iranian officials familiar with the operation, the report claims the effort included secret meetings with then-Mossad chief David Barnea, covert financial support, and an unsuccessful extraction operation during the opening days of the war with Iran.

According to the report, Barnea personally traveled to Budapest in 2024 to meet Ahmadinejad under the cover of an academic climate conference. Former U.S. officials told the newspaper that the Mossad later informed the CIA that it had established contact with the former Iranian president.

The report alleges Israel secretly financed Ahmadinejad’s travel and living expenses for several years while intelligence officers met with him on multiple occasions outside Iran.

The operation reportedly reached its climax on February 28, during the opening days of the Israel-U.S. campaign against Iran. According to four senior Iranian officials cited by the newspaper, an Israeli airstrike targeted the compound where Ahmadinejad was staying, striking his security detail and armored vehicle.

Moments later, a black Peugeot allegedly driven by Mossad operatives evacuated Ahmadinejad to a secret safe house inside Iran.

The report says the plan ultimately unraveled after Ahmadinejad became frustrated with the chaotic rescue operation and disappointed by Israel’s broader strategy to return him to power. He reportedly left the safe house under unclear circumstances and disappeared from public view until briefly appearing last week at the funeral of Iran’s late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

According to the report, Ahmadinejad is now under house arrest by the intelligence arm of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps after authorities uncovered much of his alleged contact with Israel.

The alleged operation was reportedly part of a broader Israeli strategy aimed at toppling the Iranian regime, including plans to arm and train Iranian Kurdish opposition forces based in northern Iraq to seize territory inside Iran.

Former Military Intelligence chief Tamir Hayman recently alluded to the broader effort, describing it as “a sequence of very unique special operations,” adding that “Ahmadinejad was part of that sequence.”

Ahmadinejad served as Iran’s president from 2005 to 2013 and became internationally known for repeatedly calling for Israel’s destruction, denying the Holocaust, accelerating Iran’s nuclear program, and overseeing a violent crackdown on opposition protests following the disputed 2009 elections.

The Mossad declined to comment on the report, while Ahmadinejad’s spokesman also refused to respond.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)