Inside Mossad’s Secret Plot to Recruit Ahmadinejad as an Intelligence Asset
In one of the most extraordinary intelligence operations ever revealed, Israel’s Mossad spent years secretly cultivating former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as an intelligence asset — with an audacious plan to install him as Iran’s leader following regime change. The operation, detailed in a bombshell New York Times investigation, ultimately collapsed, and Ahmadinejad is now under house arrest by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
The Unlikeliest of Assets
Ahmadinejad, who served as Iran’s president from 2005 to 2013, was once one of Israel’s most vocal adversaries. During his tenure, he accelerated Iran’s nuclear program, repeatedly called for Israel’s destruction, and denied the Holocaust. His disputed 2009 re-election sparked massive protests that were violently suppressed.
Yet after leaving office, Ahmadinejad underwent a remarkable political transformation. He grew increasingly estranged from Iran’s ruling establishment, criticized the security forces, and was barred from presidential elections three times by the Guardian Council. According to The Jerusalem Post, Israeli intelligence saw an opportunity in this estranged populist who still commanded support among working-class Iranians.
The Budapest Connection
The operation’s first known phase began in early 2024, when a senior Hungarian government official approached Gergely Deli, rector of Ludovika University of Public Service in Budapest. The request was unusual: organize a climate conference and invite Ahmadinejad as cover for secret talks with Israeli intelligence.
Deli, aware of the stakes, agreed. “If you have two enemies, and if these enemies want to talk with each other, then it’s best to do what you can to make them talk,” he told the New York Times.
The operation was deemed so significant that then-Mossad chief David Barnea personally traveled to Budapest to meet Ahmadinejad. According to i24NEWS, the Mossad subsequently informed the CIA that it had established a communication channel with the former president.
Payments and a Second Meeting
Ahmadinejad returned to Budapest in June 2025 for a second round of talks, days before the 12-day US-Israeli conflict with Iran erupted on June 13. During this visit, he twice evaded his IRGC bodyguards for lengthy meetings with Israeli operatives.
Israel made secret payments to Ali Akbar Javanfekr, Ahmadinejad’s spokesman, and covered some of the former president’s housing and travel expenses. Abdolreza Davari, a former senior adviser to Ahmadinejad, told the NYT that the former president was not motivated by money. “He has money; he has a wide economic network. He would do it for power. He wants to be at the helm of power,” Davari said.
The Extraction and Collapse
The plan reached its decisive phase on February 28, 2026 — the opening day of the US-Israeli military campaign against Iran. An Israeli airstrike struck Ahmadinejad’s Tehran compound, hitting his bodyguards’ building and armored vehicle. Mossad operatives in a black Peugeot then extracted him and drove him to a secret safe house inside Iran.
But the operation soon unraveled. According to Haaretz, Ahmadinejad became disturbed by the chaotic extraction and increasingly skeptical of the plan. He left the safe house under unclear circumstances.
He reappeared publicly on July 6 at the funeral of former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei — who was killed on the first day of the war — wearing a surgical mask and heavy jacket, surrounded by security personnel. Four senior Iranian officials confirmed to the NYT that Ahmadinejad is now in the custody of the IRGC’s intelligence wing under house arrest.
A Broader Regime-Change Strategy
The Ahmadinejad operation was part of a larger strategy that also involved plans to arm Iranian Kurdish opposition groups in northern Iraq, seize territory in western Iran, and advance toward Tehran. Tamir Hayman, former head of intelligence for the Israeli military, described the plan on PBS as involving “a sequence of special operations, very, very unique, that was supposed to happen.”
An associate of Ahmadinejad told the NYT that the former president had concluded he could not return to power while the Islamic Republic’s existing structure remained intact. He reportedly told confidants that, with foreign assistance, he could lead Iran through a post-regime transition, recognize Israel, and normalize relations under the Abraham Accords.
Implications and Unanswered Questions
The revelation carries significant implications for all parties involved. For Israel, it represents an embarrassing operational failure that raises questions about Mossad’s tradecraft. For Iran, it validates the regime’s security concerns and may trigger a broader crackdown. For the United States, questions linger about American involvement and knowledge of the plot.
Several critical questions remain unanswered: How did Iranian authorities discover Ahmadinejad’s contacts with Israel? What role, if any, did the CIA play? Will Ahmadinejad face trial for treason? And what is the current status of the broader regime-change plan involving Kurdish groups?
What is clear is that the operation — straight out of a spy thriller — has laid bare the extraordinary lengths to which Israel and Iran will go in their decades-long shadow war, and the dizzying complexity of trying to orchestrate change from within one’s most implacable enemy.