A covert US-Israel strategy to reshape Iran after the killing of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei allegedly included plans to bring former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad back to power, according to a report by The New York Times.
The report sheds fresh light on what it describes as behind-the-scenes calculations during the war with Iran, including an expectation in Washington and Tel Aviv that Tehran’s leadership structure could rapidly collapse after targeted military strikes. However, despite the killing of Khamenei and sustained attacks on Iranian military infrastructure, the wider political breakdown that planners allegedly anticipated never fully materialised.
According to the report, US President Donald Trump had publicly hinted soon after the strikes that Iran would be better off if leadership emerged from “someone from within” the country. Behind the scenes, the report claims, Israeli intelligence agency Mossad had developed a plan involving Ahmadinejad, once known globally for his anti-Israel rhetoric and confrontational stance against the West.
The former Iranian president, who served from 2005 to 2013, had reportedly fallen out with Iran’s ruling establishment in recent years and was said to be under house arrest in Tehran at the time.
How Ahmadinejad allegedly became part of the plan
The New York Times reported that Mossad discussed the proposal with Ahmadinejad as part of a broader effort to engineer a political transition in Iran after the war began.
One of the most dramatic claims in the report concerns an Israeli strike on Ahmadinejad’s residence on the opening day of the conflict. While the strike was officially presented as a military operation, one associate quoted by the newspaper described it as “in effect a jailbreak operation” meant to eliminate members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps who were allegedly guarding him.
Ahmadinejad reportedly survived the strike but later distanced himself from the broader regime-change effort.
An associate cited in the report claimed that Washington saw Ahmadinejad as someone who could stabilise Iran’s “political, social and military situation” during a transitional phase.
White House outlines goals of ‘Operation Epic Fury’
White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly defended the military campaign, saying President Trump had laid out clear objectives from the beginning of what she called “Operation Epic Fury.”
“From the outset, President Trump was clear about his goals for Operation Epic Fury: destroy Iran’s ballistic missiles, dismantle their production facilities, sink their navy, and weaken their proxy,” Kelly said, according to the report.
She added that military operations had largely achieved their goals and that negotiations were continuing to permanently dismantle Iran’s nuclear capabilities.
The report also said Ahmadinejad’s exact role in the alleged operation remains unclear. However, it pointed to a 2019 interview in which the former Iranian president described Trump as a “man of action” and a “businessman” capable of weighing “cost-benefits”.
The newspaper further noted that Ahmadinejad had travelled to Hungary and Guatemala shortly before the war, visits that were reportedly viewed by some observers as politically significant because of those countries’ close ties with Israel.
According to the report, the broader strategy envisioned a three-stage collapse of Iran’s ruling system. But despite the intense military pressure and the reported killing of Khamenei, Iran’s governing structure remained intact, exposing what the report described as a major miscalculation by planners.
The New York Times also reported that Mossad chief David Barnea later told associates the operation could still have succeeded if events had unfolded differently.
Ahmadinejad has not appeared publicly since the reported strike on his residence, and his current whereabouts remain unknown, the report added.