Mossad Chief's Bid to Recruit Ahmadinejad Ended in Resentment, Reports Say

Israel attempted to recruit former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a staunch anti-Zionist, to lead a new regime in Tehran, according to reports from the New York Times and Israeli newspaper Haaretz. The effort began in 2022 and continued even after Israel launched its military campaign in Gaza against Hamas, a key Iranian ally. Mossad director David Barnea reportedly made the recruitment of Ahmadinejad such a priority that he skipped a security consultation with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the Gaza war to travel to Budapest for a meeting. The meeting took place after Ahmadinejad was invited to speak at a university in the Hungarian capital, a location Netanyahu had visited two months earlier. Following the meeting, Mossad informed the CIA of the contact. Israeli officials reportedly even paid for Ahmadinejad’s travel and accommodation. The former president, who during his tenure denied the Holocaust and called for Israel’s destruction, had been identified by US and Israeli officials as a potential leader for a post-theocracy Iran. However, after being extracted from his home by four Mossad agents during military strikes on Iran, Ahmadinejad reportedly became resentful of the ‘panicked’ rescue mission and disappointed with the plan to install him in power. He left the safe house under mysterious circumstances and is now believed to be detained by the intelligence wing of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.