On March 1st, just hours after the bombing of Iran by the United States and Israel began, the first news flashes indicated that the residential complex where the former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad lived had been hit and that the politician, one of the best-known antisemites, could be one of the victims. One more alongside the five dozen senior government and Armed Forces officials, perfectly identified and located by Israeli intelligence services, who had demonstrated almost impossible knowledge and control on the ground.
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On May 19th, however, The New York Times caused widespread shock by publishing a story that seemed like science fiction, claiming that Israel actually bombed the building to help him escape house arrest in a bold plan to elevate him as the new leader in what they considered would be the imminent fall of the regime, but everything had gone wrong due to last-minute doubts from the person involved.
The reactions were of disbelief. Because of the character’s profile, the implausibility of the operation, and because they seemed like rumors spread either by the former president’s enemies wanting to discredit him, or by Israeli Intelligence services to expose an old enemy. Everything seemed part of internal struggles within the framework of a possible incipient revolution to overthrow the regime. The words in the days before from President Donald Trump, suggesting it would be ideal if “someone from inside” took charge of the country, somewhat like what happened in Venezuela, fueled speculation, score-settling, and a sense of paranoia.
The possibility that Ahmadinejad, known for his tirades advocating to “wipe Israel off the map” 20 years ago, for his hatred of the American “Great Satan” and his defense of the Iranian nuclear program, could be the chosen one sounded delirious, impossible. Even if Washington and Tel Aviv wanted a transition, the move seemed risky, baseless. Until today.
Years of relationship
This Monday, the same four New York Times reporters who signed that story have published a much more surprising second part, explaining that Israeli intelligence services have spent years cultivating the relationship with Ahmadinejad, giving him money for travel, trying to turn him into an asset, and even sending the top spy chief to meet him in places like Budapest, under the pretext of university conferences on climate. And that the famous bombing was not at all a mistake, but part of a very ambitious plan that went wrong for reasons that have not yet come to light.
“On February 28, an Israeli airstrike hit Ahmadinejad’s complex, hitting the building of his bodyguards and his armored vehicle. After the attack, according to four senior Iranian officials, a black Peugeot arrived at the scene, picked up Mr. Ahmadinejad, and quickly moved him away from the chaotic scene. U.S. and Iranian officials familiar with the operation said the vehicle was driven by Mossad agents, who took him to a secret safe house,” the article says.
The New York newspaper, which has no information on whether the Iranian became an agent, informant, or something similar and seems to suggest by its silences that he did not, starts with an interview with the rector of the National University of Public Service of Ludovika who confirms that he indeed extended the invitation to the Iranian following instructions from Viktor Orban’s government, which already indicated then that it was all part of a peace negotiation plan.
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Ahmadinejad’s relationship with his government and the ayatollahs has been very bad for years. He has clashed repeatedly with the leaders, accusing them of corruption. That was the reason he was disqualified from participating in up to three consecutive presidential elections, that his team was harassed or detained, and that his freedom of movement was controlled from the highest spheres. At home, very limited to his residence in the Narmak neighborhood, east of Tehran. And abroad, having to request special permits to attend international events, even being detained at airports on several occasions.
The link with the United States
He, apparently disappointed and furious, saw himself as a transition option and has cultivated both his more populist profile and the international one again. In recent years he has learned English, given speeches in that language, toned down his religious rhetoric, changed his way of dressing, and even moderated his position regarding Israel. In 2017 he even sent public letters to Donald Trump. And his resentment towards the regime, and his fear that Washington and Tel Aviv might try to impose a puppet government with someone from outside the country at the helm, would have been possible conditions of his conversations with the historical enemy of his country, according to the Times.
“According to U.S. officials, in recent years Israel secretly paid Mr. Ahmadinejad to cover his accommodation and travel expenses, and Israeli agents met with him abroad on several occasions, even during his trips to Budapest”, the newspaper says, but it cannot explain in what capacity the former president accepted the payments or if he knew in 2024 or other dates that it was all a ‘trap’ to sit him down with his enemies. Or if once that had happened, both parties knew it would be impossible to justify it in Tehran, regardless of how it had happened.
“Ahmadinejad’s visit to the university in 2024 and a second one the following year were part of an Israeli effort that lasted several years to prepare him as an intelligence agent who, when the time came, could be installed as the new leader of Iran, according to U.S. and Iranian officials familiar with the operation, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe sensitive intelligence information,” notes The New York Times. “Recruiting him was such a high priority for Israel that the then head of the country’s intelligence services, David Barnea, even traveled to the Hungarian capital in 2024 to meet with him personally, according to former U.S. officials. Shortly after, they added, Mossad, Israel’s foreign intelligence service, notified the CIA that it had been in contact with him.”
The journalistic reports do not have all the answers. They have not been able to explain whether what failed was the politician’s faith, his anger at seeing the devastation of the attacks, his resignation at not seeing an uprising in the streets, or if he really never agreed to anything and was surprised by what happened.
“Finally, Ahmadinejad left the safe house under circumstances that are still unclear and was not seen in public again until last Monday, when he made a brief appearance at the funeral procession of the assassinated supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei,” they limit themselves to saying. “His current situation remains uncertain. However, four senior Iranian officials said he is under the custody of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps intelligence service, under house arrest now that Iran is aware of much of his interactions with Israel“.
