At the beginning of the conflict with Iran, the United States and Israel tried to bring about regime change in the country by freeing former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. To this end, Israel struck his apartment, where he was under house arrest, The New York Times reported, citing American officials.
According to them, Israel’s plan quickly failed, as the former president was wounded in the attack. Sources said that Ahmadinejad survived the attack, but after barely escaping, he became disillusioned with the plan for regime change.
He has not appeared in public since then and his current whereabouts and condition are unknown, the publication notes. An aide to Ahmadinejad confirmed to The New York Times that he viewed the attack on his apartment as an attempt to free him.
The existence of this operation, which has not been reported before, was part of a multi-stage Israeli plan to overthrow Iran's theocratic government, the newspaper said. US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have chosen a risky plan for a leadership change that some of the Republican's aides have deemed implausible, the newspaper reported. A number of US officials have expressed skepticism about Ahmadinejad's return to power.
At the beginning of the war, US officials discussed plans developed with Israel to find a "pragmatist" in Iran capable of seizing power. Ahmadinejad is considered one of the candidates, despite his conflicts with the country's leadership in recent years, his exclusion from elections and travel restrictions.
The fact that the US and Israel viewed him as a potential leader, suggests that the war was intended to establish a “more accommodating leadership“ in Tehran, the newspaper concluded.
According to the source, the Americans saw Ahmadinejad as someone capable of leading Iran and managing the situation in the country, comparing him to Delcy Rodriguez, who came to power in Venezuela after the capture of Nicolas Maduro and worked closely with the Trump administration.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was the sixth president of Iran from 2005 to 2013. His reign was characterized by the development of the nuclear program, confrontation with the West and a staunchly conservative domestic policy, as well as populist measures aimed at supporting the poor.
At the beginning of the US-Israeli military operation, the Iranian news agency ILNA initially reported that Ahmadinejad had been killed in a strike. However, it later retracted its own information.