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According to the report, Israeli intelligence viewed the growing rift as an opportunity and began making contact with Ahmadinejad through a series of overseas meetings.
By United with Israel Staff
Former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has reportedly been placed under house arrest after Iranian intelligence concluded he maintained extensive contacts with Israel’s Mossad, according to a dramatic New York Times report citing multiple Iranian, Israeli and American officials.
According to the report, four senior Iranian officials said Ahmadinejad is now being held by the intelligence wing of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) after authorities uncovered what they described as years of interactions with Israeli intelligence.
The allegations, if true, would mark one of the most extraordinary intelligence operations ever reported involving a former Iranian leader.
The report claims Israel spent years cultivating Ahmadinejad in what American and Iranian officials described as a yearslong effort to groom him as an intelligence asset who could ultimately replace the Islamic Republic’s leadership.
According to the officials, the plan envisioned Ahmadinejad being installed as Iran’s new leader if the regime were toppled. Once one of Israel’s fiercest enemies—having accelerated Iran’s nuclear program, repeatedly called for Israel’s destruction, and denying the Holocaust—Ahmadinejad allegedly became increasingly disillusioned after being sidelined by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and barred from returning to the presidency.
According to the report, Israeli intelligence viewed the growing rift as an opportunity and began making contact with Ahmadinejad through a series of overseas meetings.
One of the alleged turning points came in 2024, when Ahmadinejad traveled to Budapest to speak at what appeared to be a climate conference at Ludovika University. The report alleges the conference served as a cover for secret meetings with Israeli intelligence operatives.
It further claims then-Mossad chief David Barnea personally traveled to Hungary to meet Ahmadinejad and later informed the CIA that Israel had established contact with the former Iranian president.
The report also alleges Israeli intelligence financed some of Ahmadinejad’s travel and housing expenses and met with him on several occasions abroad, including during trips to Hungary and Guatemala.
According to American and Iranian officials cited in the report, the operation reached its climax during the opening days of this year’s U.S.-Israeli war with Iran.
Following an Israeli airstrike on Ahmadinejad’s compound that reportedly destroyed his armored vehicle and the building housing his security detail, a black Peugeot allegedly driven by Mossad operatives evacuated him to a secret safe house inside Iran.
The report says Ahmadinejad later left the safe house under circumstances that remain unclear. He was not seen publicly again until last week, when he made a brief appearance at the funeral procession for slain Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Iranian officials reportedly launched an investigation after the strike and gradually pieced together evidence of Ahmadinejad’s alleged contacts with Israel. Four senior Iranian officials told the publication that he is now under house arrest as the Revolutionary Guards continue investigating the case.
The report also says Ahmadinejad first attracted suspicion years earlier after sending public letters to President Donald Trump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and after repeatedly slipping away from his IRGC security detail during overseas trips for unexplained private meetings.
His bodyguards reportedly became suspicious after he disappeared for hours during visits abroad, later claiming he had been meeting with university professors.
Neither Israel nor Iran has publicly commented on the report, which alleges that the former Iranian president—once among Israel’s most outspoken enemies—became the focus of a yearslong Mossad effort to cultivate him as a future leader of Iran.
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