Fmr. Iranian President Under House Arrest to Israel, Mossad - REPORT
Former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is under house arrest by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ intelligence arm after Iranian authorities uncovered a significant portion of his contacts with Israel, The New York Times reported on Monday, citing four senior Iranian officials.
For years, Israel conducted a covert operation aimed at recruiting Ahmadinejad as an intelligence asset and, at a later stage, even planned to install him as Iran’s leader following the overthrow of the regime, according to an extensive New York Times investigation.
According to the report, one of the operation’s more unusual stages took place in early 2024, when a senior Hungarian government official asked Gergely Deli, rector of the Ludovika University of Public Service in Budapest, to invite Ahmadinejad to a conference on climate change.
Deli said he was told that the conference would in fact serve as cover for secret talks between Ahmadinejad and Israeli intelligence officials. Despite concerns about potential damage to his own reputation and that of the university, he agreed to invite Ahmadinejad because he believed that 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."
Former American officials said that former Mossad head David Barnea personally traveled to Budapest in order to meet with Ahmadinejad.
Israel made payments to Ahmadinejad
In the years that followed, Israel made several secret payments to Ali Akbar Javanfekr, a spokesman for Ahmadinejad, and Israeli agents met with him several more times before the beginning of Operation Roaring Lion.
In February, the New York Times reported, Ahmadinejad's home compound was hit by an Israeli airstrike targeting his bodyguards and armored car, after which he was picked up by Mossad operatives and taken to a secret safe house. He eventually left the safe house for unclear reasons, and was not seen again until making an appearance at former supreme leader Ali Khamenei's funeral.
According to senior Iranian officials, he has been taken into custody by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' intelligence wing, and placed under house arrest.
Mossad officials and Ahmadinejad's spokesman Javanfekr declined to comment to the New York Times.
Ahmadinejad motivated by power, not money
According to Abdolreza Davari, a former advisor and associate of Ahmadinejad, the former president would not have worked with Israel for 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 told the New York Times in a phone interview.
Another associate said that Ahmadinejad had spoken about his ambitions to become Iran's new ruler with the help of foreign powers, and had been concerned that a war would cause the US and Israel to choose a destabilizing figure instead.
After being disqualified three times in Iran's presidential race, the associate added, Ahmadinejad had become distrustful of the Iranian system.
He had also expressed frustration and resentment with members of the Iranian regime, such as Khamenei. His associate told the New York Times that he had stated in the past that, if he returned to power, he would normalize relations with Israel through the Abraham Accords.
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